Hi all,
This is just a simple game I've had in my mind since the fairy tale contest long ago loosely based on the story of "Hanzel and Gretel." It follows the story of the two sibling captured by the witch and their journey to escape for her clutches.
Early on after the intro takes place the two find themselves separated and the majority of the game play will involve switching between the two in your attempt to escape. I would describe it as a story driven game with light puzzle elements and mostly non existent combat. The game using kisekae art for the characters which I know some aren't always a fan of. (It might be my last time using that program, we'll see.) There is also multiple endings to unlock with a wide variety of variations with mainly 8 key scenes to see at the end.
I think that pretty much wraps it up. I usually have more to say but I think this one speaks for itself. I'm honestly not entirely happy with it but I figured I might as well still release it, anyways. The game is complete as it stands but I might still make
some minor tweaks to endings and such depending on the reception. I hope you still all enjoy it nonetheless and thank you for playing!
As a captial G game, Hanzel and Gretel is pretty much a complete failure.
The gameplay mostly amounts to puzzle solving, but the majority of the "puzzles" are just solved by wandering around aimlessly. Or you can know the exact right solution, but no matter how many times you input that correct answer, the game won't accept it until you've done something else completely unrelated which the game has determined you must do first, no matter how little it makes sense.
The real, giant, glaring flaw is the unneccesary massive size of the maps. Even with auto-run turned on it takes forever and ever just to get from point A to point B. Not only are they huge, they're terribly organized; the most important rooms you'll be going to over and over again are the furthest possible distance away from everything else. I would strongly, vehemently recommend that XxEyiexX remake the entire hubworld from scratch to be much more compact and better organized, and additionally give the player a usable item that teleports them to the mirror from any other part of the hub (excluding puzzle rooms as necessary). And the section early on where you wander around in empty space with absolutely no landmarks like the world's worst Yume Nikki level has just got to go. Improve it, replace it with something better, wholesale get rid of it, whatever. I know I'm being really negative right now but there's really nowhere to go but up from "hold down random directional keys until you stumble into the solution".
There are also lots of little unpolished things. Typos; ex. "When the stones of the moon and sun find there [sic] way into the hands of those..." (and even after I got that Sun Stone it never appeared in my inventory), unclear instructions (digging puzzle), and a recurring issue where characters have an uneven number of spaces after their names so when they talk their text box does this: [Hanzel ] [Hanzel　][Hanzel ] [Hanzel　] All really minor stuff, yes, but when it's layered on top of the other bigger issues it's quite noticable and frustrating.
In short, if any of the above sounds like a dealbreaker for you, I'd strongly recommend waiting until the game has received some siginificant updates to hammer out these issues.
Now that I've got all that criticism out of the way, I can say that I really enjoyed this game! Despite the issues. Watching Hanzel get stuck in Gretel's body and helplessly tumble down further and further into being a feminine damsel in distress is so much fun and it's exactly what I look for in this type of game. And then at the same time Gretel in Hanzel's body is having nothing but success and quickly becomes ten times the guy he was, which just underlines his descent even more. It's a creative and fun way to tell this type of story and despite the simplicity of the text and the art it totally worked for me.
I particularly enjoyed the succubus segement and all the endings. If I could be selfish and ask for even more things on top of everything I've already demanded, I'd love an additional ending where Hanzel and Gretel end up stuck in each other's bodies forever, and go back to their normal lives as each other.
I really do think this game is worth playing even now with all the flaws it has, but if it receives some updates that address them, it would probably become one of my favorite games on the entire site! So if you're really in the mood for this type of game, go ahead and jump in. Otherwise, put a bookmark in it and check back after it's been polished up some.
This game has some good foundations, and has actual endings (which is rare to see from other games like this on release) which is a huge plus.
However, the intro is very long, which is a pro for some people but personally it should be optionally skippable.
Additionally, the puzzles do not hold your hand whatsoever. If you get stumped, prepare to look through every possible nook and cranny to try and discover what you haven't seen or tried already. There is no descriptions or markers, just the overarching goal of escaping. Good if you want to pull your hair out or excercise your brain, bad otherwise.
there is a weird bug where no mater where i go even if i follow the instructions i cant seem to dig up anything
TLDR: this is a complete and decent game, but get ready for a bunch of backtracking
The game is at least a complete story, with 4 endings from what I can tell. There is a lot to like about this game. The story is decent for an RPG Maker game, and the puzzles are challenging enough without being hair-pullingly difficult.
The problems with this game are mostly the massive hallways and the amount of backtracking. The game could use a little polish in terms of the little cutscenes too. Here are my suggestions:
1) reduce the size of the hallways or give us the ability to change/swap characters away from the mirror. The game took me a good hour and a half to finish, but was realistically 20 minutes or so of actual play.
2) A little more emphasis on the charcters when they change. You see the kisekae model for a second or two and it's gone. Try giving the charcters some reactions or something.
And a suggestion for after Hanzel finishes the demon section - this is a good moment for another effect to be applied to Gretel's base form like after the slime section. Not really a problem, but I wanted to throw it out there!
