ALDORLEA'S WHEN THE LIGHT DIES IS OUT!!!

[Indinera]

How far have you made it?

For now I left the game in the first town... got to work today and will have some free time tonight to play

will see how it goes with the bosses when I reach a couple of them

Yeah they are significantly more annoying. But depending if you get lucky or not, it can go alright still.

[Lady JJ]

I played a little over an hour last night. This is an a-m-a-z-i-n-g game! I've found no bugs thus far. My (very) early review:

The game is a lot less bright than most games I've played lately, but it doesn't interfere with the ability to enjoy or, more importantly, see the game. I know there was at least one pre-release comment about the darkness of the screenshots. My night vision isn't all that great and I have some other age-related vision problems, but it's not interfering with my game play, even when I play at night with no lights on.

The cliff paths were a little tricky for me in the first few maps. They're like small pebble markers rather than the usual dirt steps. I missed a few until I recognized them for what they are, but, once recognized, they do stand out and were no longer obscure.

Secret Rooms-Yes, there are secret rooms so big for that. I chose not to buy the guide right away. I may do so for my second playthrough just to be sure I didn't miss anything, but for now, I just want to explore. The secret rooms are numbered, and so far, numbered consecutively. I've finished the mines and I have 5 secret rooms. The paths to the secret rooms are much more subtle than obvious but there are definitely clues. I haven't found the need to bump into every wall to find them. It's nice that the game keeps track of what secret rooms have been found and where they were found. Hopefully the numbering system remains consecutive so if I miss one, I'll know it's somewhere between point A and point B. That said, the game, thus far, has been pretty linear in that you can't explore what the plot isn't ready for yet, and sometimes backtracking isn't possible. For instance, once Sebastian joins your party, you can't go back to the secluded cabin area which means if you didn't find the 2 secret rooms before doing the mine, then maybe those 2 secret rooms are lost to you forever? I guess Kes will have to answer this question. My advice would be to make sure you're keeping track of the rooms and if you go from #6 to #8, then go back to #6 area and find #7 as soon as you can. Confirmed that this was an error on my part, you can, indeed backtrack.

Dialogue-Lots of text boxes, but no walls of text. Just funny comments generously sprinkled throughout. Enough to keep you entertained, get to know the personalities of your actors, and give insight into the general goal of the game. Here's what I really appreciate, the main character, Rick, can be totally frustrated at times with the ineptness of his party, but he never resorts to strings of foul language. This is the mark of a great storyteller / character developer - choose your words, NOT your symbols (#@!) carefully. And, while the proverbial RPG cleavage (though more realistic, less cartoony) is present, the misogyny is not. Anna is more of a hindrance than a help in the battle field, and Rick certainly makes no bones about that, but when he chides her, he does so without calling her crass, disparaging, belittling names.

Characters-None of the characters I've encountered thus far are the typical 'hero to save the world' type. In fact, they're all flawed. Rick and Anna are definitely survivors. Sebastian is a dreamer, I guess, certainly different from Rick and Anna who didn't choose their plight but they'll deal with it and then move on. No, it's not so much that Sebastian stubbornly chooses to not accept reality, but rather that he doesn't even recognize that any reality other than the one he desires even exists. Henry is, well, Henry. I would guess he comes from a long line of Henry's (and not of the Henry VIII lineage for sure), and I believe he couldn't deviate from that lineage even if he wanted. I've only just met Bella, so I haven't formed any opinion on her yet. So far, while I'm enjoying all the characters, thus far, I like Henry best.

Battle-I chose Normal mode. I may restart before I get too far into the game and opt for Hard Mode instead. I'll leave the Legendary up to little bro, darkange and others. The battles are definitely easily winnable. It took me the first dozen or so battles to realize I should be using skills, rather than just the effective attack, more to build up prowess points. I lost the opportunity to build up about a dozen of those points. I hope I can easily catch up.

Plot-I imagine that in the end there will be some type of demon to slay, but the plot thus far has been refreshingly original. I'm definitely caught up in the plot.

So, early review is definitely 10 's Give it a try. It won't disappoint.

[GrannyC]

This looks too dark but I will try it.
OK I played the gemo and liked it even though it was too dark in the mine to find enything except the ladders and the sparkling gold. Now i have to buy it.

[Kes]

@Lady JJ

For instance, once Sebastian joins your party, you can't go back to the secluded cabin area which means if you didn't find the 2 secret rooms before doing the mine, then maybe those 2 secret rooms are lost to you forever?

I don't think this is the case. I know that in one of my playthroughs I went from the inn back into the Cliffway to start building Sebastian and Henry up a bit. Just now I went back from Xenith town and got all the way up to Rick's house. I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't be able to go back there after the mine.

However, I did see that this time (unlike other times when I've re-entered the Cliffway) Anna learnt Energy Flow again and I cannot for the life of me think how that happened. This will take some digging. If you try to go back again, could you post and say if the same thing happens to you?

As a general note, there are a couple of places where, once you've gone in there, you can't backtrack to earlier places, but Rick informs you clearly that this is going to happen, so you know to complete any outstanding business before then.

Thank you for the kind words about the game so far. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[darkange]

@kes my Ana also had the dialogue about the energy flow 3 times when I was in the forest and I got 2 skills named energy flow in her list, but they are different in description and target selection - single vs aoe

So far I think the dialogue kept appearing because Rick killed the imp before Ana's turn, on the third battle where Ana got to use energy flow once - things changed and dialogue stopped appearing

[Kes]

@Darkange

I've worked out what happened. The game checks to see if the knife is equipped. It then checks to see if that skill has been learnt. If it hasn't, then the dialogue happens.
The problem for me was that I had upgraded that skill by the time I went back to check for Lady JJ that it was still accessible. The upgrade removes the original and gives you the splash damage version (hence 2 different skill descriptions).

I have now changed this so that it checks if a particular switch is on, so that takes care of my issue.
Your issue is somewhat different. That dialogue is supposed to happen before anyone - including enemies - has acted. Rick should not have been able to kill an imp before Anna learnt her skill. Nor should you have seen the upgraded version.

I just want to be sure of a couple of things.
You say you were "in the forest". The only forest (actually it's a dense Wood) in this section of the game is after the mine. Were you there or were you in the first area, between Rick's house and the first town?
This only happened after the knife was equipped?
Did you get to choose Rick's action so that he killed the imp? This is the aspect I find most puzzling, as the dialogue (like all the dialogues at the beginning of a battle) happens in what's termed "Turn 0", so you shouldn't have been able to give Rick an action before it happened.

Thanks.

[Lady JJ]

@Lady JJ

For instance, once Sebastian joins your party, you can't go back to the secluded cabin area which means if you didn't find the 2 secret rooms before doing the mine, then maybe those 2 secret rooms are lost to you forever?

I don't think this is the case. I know that in one of my playthroughs I went from the inn back into the Cliffway to start building Sebastian and Henry up a bit. Just now I went back from Xenith town and got all the way up to Rick's house. I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't be able to go back there after the mine.

Oh, you're right. I got the upper east exit to Sebastian's house confused with the lower east exit to the secluded cabin. I'll edit my post.

I did restart the game on Hard mode and I'm not finding a lot of difference between Hard and Normal, so I'm happy I made the decision to restart.

[darkange]

@Darkange

Your issue is somewhat different. That dialogue is supposed to happen before anyone - including enemies - has acted. Rick should not have been able to kill an imp before Anna learnt her skill. Nor should you have seen the upgraded version.

I just want to be sure of a couple of things.
You say you were "in the forest". The only forest (actually it's a dense Wood) in this section of the game is after the mine. Were you there or were you in the first area, between Rick's house and the first town?
This only happened after the knife was equipped?
Did you get to choose Rick's action so that he killed the imp? This is the aspect I find most puzzling, as the dialogue (like all the dialogues at the beginning of a battle) happens in what's termed "Turn 0", so you shouldn't have been able to give Rick an action before it happened.

Thanks.

So... it was the first area - between Rick's house and the first town
This happened after the knife was equipped.
The dialogue happens at turn 0 when Anna attacks first... the I get to chose Rick's action and he kills the imp... the next battle Anna attacked again at turn zero and dialogue started again, then I killed the imp again with Rick... and the third time I managed to find 2 imps and after dialogue and Rick killing one...

Anna was left to attack the second one and when I checked her skills she had 2 energy flows...

Funny thing : I changed her name to "dirtybitch" because I am a bastard and when she said to Sebastian : I am not your darling, I am dirtybitch ... I was laughing so hard

I see the characters react with different dialogues to other characters changing their name - wonder if that affects the story latter on...

[Lady JJ]

Visual glitch, no biggie. I was going to post a screenshot but it's easy enough to reproduce. If you approach the unconscious Harold in the mine from the left side, his image changes to a clock.

[Kes]

Visual glitch, no biggie. I was going to post a screenshot but it's easy enough to reproduce. If you approach the unconscious Harold in the mine from the left side, his image changes to a clock.

Oops!
Fixed. Thanks for letting me know.

[darkange]

question : in the mines, there are some caves that dont seem accessible at all - are they just for design or you can really reach them ?

[ZuluKat]

I just bought the game after installing and going to auto save I got please purchase game. I will uninstall and re-install once again to see if it works this time or do I need to start from the beginning instead of a save? Demo was great aand very enjoyable!

[ZuluKat]

Got the same after uninstalling and re-installing. I think I definitely need help on this matter. Never had this problem before. Thanks in advance!

[Lady JJ]

@Kes, can you check out the screen where Secret Room #6 is? I can get into the room okay, but not from where I expected to enter. When I exit, I come out to where I would expect to enter, but then I can't get back onto the trail. I had to resort to Rick's Exit to Safety spell. Also, on the left/west side of that screen there are a lot of places that are passable that make no sense, e.g. moving horizontally to different layers where the cliff edge seems to be above the players. Maybe it's all intentional and I'm just not good at maneuvering my party around this maze, but the whole screen seems to be a bit off.

@ZuluKat, where does the demo end? Maybe the auto save has the demo info in it. What happens if you try to load a saved game from slots 2 and higher?

@Darkange, are you referring to the southeast portion of Albeck Caverns South? I don't believe I ever reached those two lower caves, but, then, neither do I see any enemies so I assumed it was inaccessible.

Edit
I'm in Xerith Town. Loved the unexpected plot twist. Loving something else against the west wall of Hilda's home. Quite the cash cow.

I've got a few notes I'll post now.

#4 Albeck Mine East, quest says it was found in Albeck Mine East, but the actual name of the screen was Albeck Caverns East. I wouldn't even mention this, but Albeck Mine West and Albeck Caverns West are two separate and distinct screens, so the east may cause some confusion.

The description of Rick's demotion skill is
An attack against one enemy which pushes them back
down the turn order. Earns a Prowess Point. turn cooldown.
There is no cooldown that I can see.

Again, nothing earth shattering and neither detracts from the game's playability and enjoyment.

[kimo]

@Kes, can you check out the screen where Secret Room #6 is? I can get into the room okay, but not from where I expected to enter. When I exit, I come out to where I would expect to enter, but then I can't get back onto the trail. I had to resort to Rick's Exit to Safety spell. Also, on the left/west side of that screen there are a lot of places that are passable that make no sense, e.g. moving horizontally to different layers where the cliff edge seems to be above the players. Maybe it's all intentional and I'm just not good at maneuvering my party around this maze, but the whole screen seems to be a bit off.

Same thing happened to me. Had to use "Safe Way Out" skill and only was sent back about 3 screens. But it took me quite a while to give up finding a path out from SR#6. Purposeful on Kes' part? Hmmmm.

And talking about a taking a long time to figure out something. The battle turn bar at the bottom moves opposite from what I expected being a person who reads from left to right.

It's been enjoyable so far on Normal mode but with less battle strategy than I would have guessed. Luckily all the in-game documents help understand the nuances of the game.