Summoners Incorporeal

i loved this game. it was a lot of fun to play. every contract is unique and leads to some fun builds to maximize sp(summoning points). i do have some feedback though:

movement is a bit wonky. it takes slightly too long for your character to start moving and slightly too long for your character to stop moving. in the small spaces this makes movement clunky. you either hold down movement keys and have really imprecise movement, or you slowly move one tile at a time.

i couldnt figure out the tutorial at first. it looks like you have to only use the items found on the floor. turns out you can get extra candles. that took me a bit to figure out. that could have been mentioned as a possibilty in the conversation, not only when you bring the guy and not the spellbook the candle.

the language in the game is a bit confusing. adjacent had me looking up the definition. next to would have been a bit more understandable. other than that i really like the items functions. they are very intuitive and you can make some devious combos with them to gain massive sp. the only item condition i was ever unsure about was the empty empty circles condition. its a bit of a weird way to put it, but to be fair i cant think of a better way. it requires empty spaces next to it that a circle from, for example a skull candle, is on. i was able to figure the condition out pretty quickly, but it did have me thinking for a bit.

managed to get a 4725 sp combo. combos can really get out of hand in this game. the setup that i found most powerful was a dagger with a voodoo and a sheep, a teddy to repeat the dagger through both. random level points added to the final total. the combo alone however is enough to get 4200 points and is independent from the nexus. that is absolutely busted. dynamite could replace the dagger and teddy in the combo and allow for only using voodoo and sheep for max points, but it is bugged. it says it destroys items, and sheep and voodoo activate upon being destroyed, but not when destroyed by dynamite? this would be the mathematical best combo, if it worked: one dynamite and 3 voodoo and 4 sheep. that would come out to 12000 points from a base combo, without using any of the levels items and without being dependent on the nexus. technically 4 voodoo, 3 sheep gives the same points, but factoring in map items the multiplication would ultimately give a higher score. i would have loved to use this combo, but oh well. the theoretical max points would then depend on the rooms. they have a set layout an set items, but the chests contain random loot. the room with the most chests would be the best, as the highest point items are sheep and voodoo and the chests could theoretically all have them. i would go and check the numbers for all rooms, but i refuse to do so until dynamite is fixed. i dont see the point in spending more time finding a theoretical cap, if the method is bugged.

a gold bonus for going over the contracted sp would be nice though. like a gold per 100 sp over the contract would be a fair reward. getting high scores is fun, but you arent rewarded for going the extra mile and optimizing every summon. that optimization however was the most fun part of the game for me. doing it for no reason when i could be done did hamper my enthusiasm to keep optimizing all summons.

a way to reroll the shop for like 10 gold would be nice. i spent forever after beating the game trying to get items for an optimal combo, after i threw my daggers into the void for bugged dynamite that is useless.

the max sp in the tutorial is 280. not really useful, just fun to find the max.

carpet nullifying summoning item affects is a very cool mechanic. shame it is only explained by talking to a coworker in the lobby. carpets are the main inhibitors in the game and so them not getting mentioned in a non optional way isnt great. you either talk to the coworker or learn the hard way in a mission, what carpets do.

blue lilys still work on carpet.

pot of greed says its + 2 gold for every empty connection, but its only +1 ? its better that way, as a free 16 gold is busted. 8 gold is more reasonable.

birthday candle says its +25 aura when connected to nexus, however it only gives +10.

dont know if you are supposed to be able to grab items from tables. it looks like you should be able to, but you cant. they are such a tease when playing. for some reason you can grab items out of some boxes. you have no idea how long that took me to find out. i beat the game before i found that out.

the final dialogue seems to bug out. i dont know if thats intentional, but it works fine for a bit and then the text is suddenly in size 120 and is going across the entire screen, unrestricted by the chatbox and so i could only make out a few words as the rest were off screen. 

you can also just cross into a seemingly infinite space, if you ignore the teleport. again im unsure if this is intentional, or if the player isnt supposed to be able to go out there.

beating the game seemingly does nothing. like the game knows i won, as a teddy i put into the teleporter showed up in the lobby, but idk. maybe you were supposed to get a 5x5 teleport space as a bonus as thats what you use to get back from the board to the lobby, but that doesnt work? idk the ending? had me more confused than anything. i wasnt sure if i had beaten the game or not. everything continued as usual and i was still able to gain promotions, even though i had been promoted to the top by management?  the levels also reset, so i was re-doing summons that i had already done.

all in all a fun game. i spent way too much time with this. it is in need of polish, but the gameplay is fun. my biggest complaints are the ending being poorly done and dynamite being bugged, stopping the optimal combo from working. why you list it in " your okayest work" is a mystery to me. i would put it into your best work. it is miles above the other okayest games. i havent played your best works yet so this has heightened my expectations of those games, if this game is ok in comparison.