Daraney - Guardian's Rise

Finally, here's a list of (potential) (minor) bugs etc. that I noticed during my playthrough:

- Higher Necklace of War (1350 Gold) and Highly Necklace of War (9870 Gold) both feature the same stats (+4 ATK).

- The Wildfire skill descriptions don't make it clear that the skills target all enemies.

- Ysenta's Leather Rip features the wrong description (sword).

- Nothing happens when trying to use the Story of Ilyatir II Key Item.

- Is it intended that Brutal Orb, Legendary Orb of Life and Mythical Orb of Energy (as items that permanently raise stats) are placed in the Key Items section, even though all other stats raising orbs (even ones that raise the stats of the whole party) can be found in the normal items section?

- Mythical Orb of Energy raises the EP of the whole party by 100 instead of 6.

- Platinum Scale Gloves are assigned to the armor section instead of to the gloves section.

- When I had the Protectun ring (+15% counter rate) equipped on Fyrea, she once countered against herself after she had used the Colossus self-buff skill. Needless to say: I shelved the ring afterwards.

- According to the status menu, the Critical Eye necklace (supposedly +35% critical hit chance) doesn't increase the critical rate at all. Other "critical" equipment might be affected, too.

- Is it intended that the Magical Snake Skin Armor (Limare's default armor) provides the wearer with a huge MP boost (1500 - 2000 MP more compared to other armor pieces)?

- Side quest A Soon-To-Be-Adventurer I: It's not necessary to craft the Orcanic Scale Armor, the player can simply use the one found in Star Desert (might or might not be intentional). On the other hand, in order to complete the Herb Delivery side quest, the player must gather 10 new Healing Herbs and can't complete the quest by using already collected Healing Herbs.

- After having triggered and defeated the first powerful foe (on a map on which powerful foes can appear), when supposedly triggering the second powerful foe (without leaving the map), it doesn't appear, but it can be found at the same spot as before (only) after leaving and reentering the map (confirmed at least for Burning Cave, Eastern Desert, Eastern Ruins, Western Cave and Border Cave). The same issue occurs on the Holy Grounds map (after having read the stone tablets, the player must leave and reenter the map or otherwise the advisor won't appear again).

- Burning Cave: After having defeated the minotaur (eastern trial map), when leaving and reentering the map, the minotaur sprite is visible again, but simply disappears upon interaction (so it can't be fought again).

- Temple of Flames, northern path (eastern segment): Due to a mapping error, the lower right corner (left of the treasure chest that contains the Draconic Eye B) can't be reached, which condemns the two enemy troops there to eternal isolation.

- After handing over the Essence of Flames, the AP distribution is suddenly reset (might or might not be intentional).

- When Fyrea is supposed to explore the Eastern Desert, but visits Mon'Gra (Temple of Guardian) instead, he once again says that Fyrea should visit the Temple of Flames (which she already did).

- Western Edge item vendor + Dorrenta item vendor + Star Oasis item vendor (late-game) + Eastern Ruins item vendor (late-game): The recipe section cuts off at Fyrea's Armor respectively.

- Triggering the cutscene in Dorrenta disables the mini map. Fortunately, the mini map becomes available again after the next cutscene in Dorrenta (Elder's house).

- Contrary to what the game says after having triggered the cutscene in Dorrenta, there aren't any new bounties available (Black Board in Flayk's inn).

- Does the Merchant Lantern work as intended? I even got two of them, but I couldn't use them from the menu, and just carrying them didn't seem to make any difference, which made discovering Underground Ruins (2) very difficult.

- Underground Ruins (2): There's no way to reach the plateau (on which two enemy units roam) near the stairs leading to Underground Ruins (3).

- Resting Place: After having opened the door that requires the Darkened Key (2), the player is placed in front of the door that requires the Darkened Key (3) instead. And vice versa: After having opened the door that requires the Darkened Key (3), the player is placed in front of the (already opened) door that requires the Darkened Key (2) instead.

- After having completed the Resting Place dungeon, the dungeon can't be entered again (might or might not be intentional). Even worse: The same applies to the Lair of Triumph (Victorious Meadow cave), which makes the Dragon Fragment IV and the Dragon Armor (recipe) permanently missable.

- Completing the Resting Place dungeon disables the caterpillar system (party members walking behind each other), which is only restored later by the cutscene after the final boss fight.

- When using the Emergency Teleport Key Item after having completed the Resting Place dungeon, the Blood Moon effect disappears. The same seems to happen when interacting with the Black Board in Flayk's inn.

- After finishing the story-related talk with the Elder's daughter in Oasis Town, she simply vanishes into thin air.

- Lair of Triumph (1): In the lower left corner, the area left of the fenced (two tiles wide) hole (in which one enemy roams) can't be reached.

- Cutscene in Flayk after having defeated the final boss: I hope the party celebrated the victory by holding a banquet (food) instead of a bouquet (flowers).

- Underground Cavern (2): One Cave Wolf enemy troop is placed in an inaccessible vertical area in the upper left corner.

- Black Board in Flayk's inn: The reward for completing the Cave Guardian bounty can be obtained an indefinite number of times.

- Mountain Cave C (2): An inaccessible (closed off) area on the left edge contains two roaming enemy units.

- Saphira's "distribution": The text for Magical Evasion is in German.

Regarding feedback, I like the game as a whole, especially the great area design, all the different systems (distribution, crafting, skill-strengthening through usage), the mini-map and the elaborate battle system. On the other hand, there are some aspects that could be improved from my perspective (only a few nitpicks, though):

- I really don't like this kind of auto-save system in which the auto-save constantly overwrites the most current save file. Because of this, I had to save twice on different slots every single time, since it was the only way to create an actual back-up file, considering that the auto-save even activates when simply opening the menu. For a save-scummer like me, that sure turned out tedious in the long run. Most developers of RPG Maker (MV/MZ) games implement auto-saves in a way that the auto-save always saves on the same slot (e.g. file 1), on which the player can't save manually. It's probably not worth the effort to change how auto-saves work in this game, but the aforementioned issue is something to keep in mind for potential future games.

- It would be great if it was possible to reach 100% in crafting.

- I'm not a fan of slow walking speed, but fortunately, the instances are few and far between.

- While I'm glad that the maximum level is higher than 99 (135 in this case), I think you could go even higher (maybe 200), especially when considering how fast the maximum level can be reached (all the more so when equipping party members with Fountains of Knowledge). By raising the level cap even further, it would also be possible to max out all sections in the distribution system. Furthermore, it would be a good idea to mention the level cap in one of the tutorials. Without knowing the total number of available points (in the long run) and without being able to respec (reallocate), I'm always hesitant to spend points in these kinds of distribution systems.

- Some kind of late-game fast-travel system (beyond being able to warp to Flayk) would have been great.

- It's a bit irritating that the game treats Bresk as if he wasn't part of the party, even though he's invaluable because of his overpowered counter skill, which practically makes the party invincible for one turn (although it can't be used in succession because of the skill's cooldown).

- Combat becomes a breeze when Fyrea isn't the only party member anymore (which is all right - better too easy than too difficult), the downside being that there isn't any opportunity to try out all the cool combos. The same applies to money, which is scarce for a long time, until the player suddenly owns more than they can spend.

I just reached the game's ending after nearly 40 hours. It was a fun ride from start to finish, so thanks for developing this very entertaining game. I'll post feedback and my bug report later, but first, if you would be so kind, I need a few pointers with regards to some loose ends, even though it's embarrassing to admit. :D Some of these loose ends are probably even connected:

- Most prominently, I'm still missing the orb for the middle pedestal in the Frozen Cave (Mountain Cave C bottom floor).

- I still don't know where to use the Demonic Key and the Strange Key.

- Gap of Sand (4): A statue is missing one eye. I don't know what to do or insert here, even though I kept my eyes peeled.

- The northern and eastern exits of Path of Exams don't lead anywhere, but I probably just reached the end of the line.

- Did I miss any side quests? So far, I found and completed 45 side quests (18x side quest, 1x character, 7x dungeon, 0x legend, 17x bounty, 2x synthesis) according to the quest journal.

- Unless I'm too stupid, the crafting section probably needs some rework:

-- After having bought all recipes and played through (almost) the entire game, I still only have 155/249 recipes, and I only managed to craft 132/155 items.

-- It seems there's no way to obtain the following crafting resources: Enlightened Magical Rips, Ghost's Essence, Gold Ore, Redflame Stone, Tsuyoblume, Water Powder.

-- At least I got some Lava Stones, but they can't be used anywhere in crafting.

-- Unless I missed something, it seems that some unique crafting resources can't be used due to the lack of an according recipe (Chimera Pelt, Chimera Horn, Blade of Scyther).

I would appreciate a few pointers, and I apologize for my lack of gaming prowess in advance.

My playthrough has been very fun so far, and I thoroughly enjoy steamrolling my foes now that I can command a full party.

There's one (potential) urgent issue, though:

- The Stone Giant is nowhere to be found in Fist of Stone (3) (and it doesn't appear elsewhere in the dungeon, either).

Since the dungeon isn't that large, I doubt that I missed the Stone Giant, especially considering that I had killed everything in sight.

While the game suffers from a couple of minor issues, reporting them can wait until I've finished my playthrough.

By the way, is it correct to assume that you hail from Germany (just like me)? While the German dialogue of that one NPC in Flayk might not be a strong enough basis for my assumption, the "Denglish" term "Unterground Cave" (German: Untergrund; English: Underground) on the save-screen would be a typical careless mistake in this scenario. ;)

The game looks promising, but I'm not a fan of JRPGs that force me to fight with only one party member. How many party members does the game feature? Or is the party composed of only Fyrea from start to finish?