Hello everyone, I've been a bit busy lately (that and I'm on vacation atm, kinda :P ).
Sorry for the late reply!
in disguise mission in northern part after talking to mom on phone the screen suddenly becomes big and cannot move forward
The screen is indeed supposed to change size (since this kinda circumvents an "engine" bug). If the text shows as intended (meaning you can see the textbox and press the action button to read the next sentence normally) then there's not really a problem. It's where the episode is supposed to end after displaying some credit messages etc.
Thanks for the game, i really loved it, with only 3 episodes the game is already in my top 4 pokemon fangames: reborn, rejuvenation, desolation, and now Postscriptum (ps: in no particular order).
I thought I would only have a top 3 in fangames but after playing this game I feel compelled to create a top 4 lol
You've created something incredible here, feel proud about it.
Looking foward for episode 4!
Thank you for your kind words! We're flattered!
PS is undeserving of even the slightest comparison to the aforementioned big names, though! But we're doing our best to make it as good as it can be.
This is overall quite ambitious and has some interesting themes and some good dialogue.
It's graphically impressive and has an excellent plot so far and some good characters.
A few criticisms.
This is the kind of review that the dev team likes the most, so please don't be reluctant to express your criticism. (It also goes without saying that there's not even a hint of "hating the game" in what you've written, so no need to apologize at all!) Progress cannot take place without criticism, no?
Before delving into the finer points - It seems you're stuck on the Blue Boss fight, so my reply will be structured based on this assumption.
The implementation of 'difficulty' in this game is a bit different. You have already pinpointed an example of that: "one shotting bosses that require very specific strategies and luck OR lots and lots and lots of grinding". While there are indeed story-design related reasons for this predicament as well, there's also one gameplay-specific reason: to accommodate for different playstyles. Some prefer grinding to strategy. Others strategy to grinding. Others prefer rewards for exploring (which are not actually available at the stage of the game you're currently in). Is this executed properly? Probably not, and therein lies the struggle from a developer standpoint - how to simultaneously cover these bases while staying true to the design philosophy of the game.
Speaking of the latter, there's three main reasons for the current difficulty curve mess, which is, in part, desired:
Now let's take a look at these:
"A lot of NPC's feel like they're there to be there."
"When I started this game
I spent two hours wandering the city"
"while some NPCs had something valuable to say a lot of them were
no better than the stuff in normal Pokemon games"
"You really can spend the first two hours
hearing nonsense from a good number of npcs"
"I'm sure I'll beat that boss eventually but
I'm not enjoying that part. I really feel like the deck is
seriously stacked against me and that
I have the tools but they're rusty tools, they COULD work but
it's not going to be easy to make them work."
"like being forced to fight level 2 Zubat
over and over and over and over"
All of these are not only valid criticisms, but expected reactions as well. Actually they're very much in line with what the MC feels (whom you are supposed to empathize with). It's vital to the game for certain types of annoyingness and frustration to stay as is, however.
As for these:
"I got stuck with whatever nature" - Well, time to start playing like the old times, without worrying about natures right? It's not like the battling system in this game is expecting you to take that into consideration when you fight - you already know this.
"when you make a character want to battle they have a defined purpose for doing so." - That would be good game design. However at this point, we are forced to avoid that.
"and yet your game will be better instead of worse because every character you place will have a real purpose" - Interesting. So do nameless NPCs serve no particular purpose? Do they need some kind of "special" characteristic (wink wink) to have a right to exist? (No, I'm not making this stuff up, it's not as if there's something deep here, but this is integral to the themes of the game)
Now, about the purpose of the story and the design in general- it's really difficult to find the right balance between obeying the design/story/narration approach and applying that into a properly designed gameplay experience (they're ...antithetical in this game). However trimming the fat, as you said, is what definitely needs to be done. We're constantly working on improving this relationship. It's thanks to feedback like yours actually. The same happened with the atrociously unbearable vernacular (which was even worse before the current version) which just had to be toned down. The next version will be even better both in that regard and in some presentation/design areas such as the ones you've mentioned here.
The Orphanage example you mentioned -
And that's all I can say for now. Another review would be great after you're done with the episode! That way we will have more information about your experience as a whole (and a point of comparison to your previous assesment of the game).
I'm curious though, where exactly is that "philosophy" you mentioned?
The game doesn't have anything to do with that!
The next update (not episode) will be out in about a month. Until then I won't be able to reply 'cause Internet access is a pain where I currently am.
Thank you for your interest in the game!