johnsoma's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ninja Demon Runner]

This has the potential to be made into something bigger. The gameplay is really fun once I got the rhythm down. Just needs a little bit more content. As it is, the difficulty peaks pretty early once the buildings disappear.

(Best score: 91)

EricDanneskjold responds:

I might revisit it again in the future, but for now, learning is my top priority :)

[Conspiracy Madness]

I miss nonsense games like this sometimes. Rough, but creative.

Note: In the 3rd 5G level, if you take too long to beat the level, around 20 minutes, the waves and moving platforms will get out of sync with each other, and then it becomes impossible to beat.

koblih responds:

Hey, thanks for your comment.
I managed to find the issue, but updating the game would delete all the user save data, so I am not sure if I should.
Meanwhile you could try to reload the game - choose continue and then the level you got stuck on. I hope this helps

Update: fixed the isue, the user data is deleted. I think it is better to delete user data than to have a broken game

[Emergency Monster Team v0.103.1 (update)]

EDITED: Problem I had before was addressed.

This game is incredibly unique and interesting. Art is fantastic. Story is intriguing. World is fun to explore, and the turn-based RPG combat strikes a good balance of depth and accessibility. I did run into some issues related to progression flags, though:

-Escorting Mina before doing Bonita's quest leads to two Bonitas running around.
- Related to the above, I'm pretty sure Mina is needed for the bathroom investigation, but escorting her first leads to that part of the story becoming impossible to do. (Unless there's a way to get her and Savina to stop talking to each other that I'm not aware of)
- The mushroom girl, I think her name is Anita? I think she was supposed to give me a list of medical items to find, but I found her last, so she was acting like I was in the middle of finding items already. So this quest is also impossible if things are done in the wrong order
- Latisha's quest wants some food items and hot sauce. However, I talked to her with only the sauce, and the quest finished as if I had everything else, so the quest only checks for the sauce. This might be why Anita's quest got screwed up, since I was supposed to get some items from her, apparently

As things are right now, it seems the story locks up if you don't do the quests in the intended order. That's a shame, because I love all the detail you put into this world and story. It's staggeringly well-realized, and that's why I made such an in-depth review: I want it to be as good as it can be.

shadoboxxer responds:

Thank you for finding these issues. You're the first person to have these issues. I'll test other the problems you found on my end and see what I can do to fix them. I notices that there seems to be issues that only happen in the HTML version. So I hope I can adjust these.

***SPOILERS***

- You're correct that you need Mika for the bathroom fight. To avoid losing Mika, accept Latisha's quest first, then go see Tamika in the gift shop about the hot sauce. From there you can get Mika and have her in your party. Just complete the escort mission last. (Also lets you unlock extended coffee break)

- I never ran into the issue of having two Bonita on screen/in party. I'll see if I can repeat that issue.

- When you talk to Latisha first, it activates the quest for the food items. Then if you go to Anita (Mushroom) she will give you the food items. Talk to her a second time to get Anita's Quest and list of items she needs.

I'll check on the triggers for the hot sauce quest, because it should work by flags on how many items you have for her not just hot sauce. I'll make adjustments as needed.

Also, other text changes when there are additional party members.

Vendi can actually be fought with Nadel and Mika as a team if you get the location of the Hot Sauce from Tamika first, then escort Mika.

There's also more comedic text if you don't shower first after dumpster diving.

Again, thank you very much for taking the time to play my game, I'll make sure I fix up these things tonight and update the game ASAP.

[Raissa The Immortal [2]]

This one is quite fun to play! Simple on the surface, but the artifacts, skills, and light bullet hell to dodge adds just enough complexity to keep things interesting. The story's also surprisingly good.

I'm not sure what being a roguelite does for this game, though. It might be because I beat it without dying, but the difficulty isn't high enough to call for those gradual upgrades. I actually approve of that, though. The game is just long enough as is, and having to repeat it when dying might have made it repetitive, considering the simple combat. A design 'flaw' that happens to work in the game's favor, in my eyes.

All in all, I actually like this one perhaps more than most. Nice work!

Awennor responds:

Hi! Thanks for playing!

I have been developing this "engine" over the course of months and the game I want to make has evolved with it, so that is why it became like that, half-rogue. I'm currently moving away from the temporary upgrades into permanent upgrades for the next release.

[Reaction Time]

EDITED 12/8:
I previously complained about this game not showing what key goes to what color during actual gameplay. That has been fixed, and it makes a huge difference for enjoyment. I still made lots of mistakes before getting a good run, but that's on me this time, trying to anticipate the next color and failing. Results can still end up varying, though, depending on how many times the same color turns up repeatedly.

(to give an idea of how much that change helped, my best score is now 42, up from 37)

niffirgGames responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I was going for hard, but not frustrating. But 37 is a great score!

Edit: I added the keys and colors to the top of the screen to help the player remember which keys match with witch colors, I'd love to hear if this helps fix the problem!

[[BTNverse] Universal Thief]

This game is ridiculous in the best possible way. The concept is great, it's executed brilliantly, and the music is excellent. Awesome.

adriendittrick responds:

Thanks a lot for playing :)

[show]

Ok, this is the last one of my little binge through your selection, at least for now. The style of this one is the star of the show. I found the platform mechanic a little finicky though, mostly on that last puzzle, which is extremely precise.

mmattugh responds:

thanks for taking the time to go through them all :!)

[Starvail]

The gameplay is tight, but the dialog doesn't show up for me, just blank text boxes Unfortunate, since this game is text heavy.

The flight ability is strange at first glance, but I like it in hindsight. Makes it so you have to commit before going airborne.

Also, the ending screen has the numbers appear in a different pattern from the image, I'm guessing that's a leftover from an earlier build.

So there's some things to fix, but it seems really good once those text issues were fixed.

kilonovastudios responds:

Your feedback is very useful for us to improve the game, thank you very much for your comment n.n nice evening!

[Disc Us]

The game itself is really snappy and fun to play. Most rooms I played seem to favor goofing off and making up their own games and rules rather than completing objectives most of the time. That's fine, but it's good to be aware of.

keybol responds:

That's part of the fun for me hehe

[Medieval Merchant]

I'll start by acknowledging that making a game in a week is really impressive, no matter what. With that said, this game needs more work before it's ready to go live.

Nothing is explained in this game. Why should I use sword swing instead of sword throw? I don't know, because I can't see enemy health. What is with this weird mix of clicking buttons with the mouse and typing commands? They really don't mix well, literally, since the game breaks if you click a button while the type prompt is onscreen. What does investing do? I didn't see any results, even with a high interest.

SpectrisGames responds:

1. The game isn't supposed to tell you a lot, you must experiment
2. The mix of clicking and typing was the most intuitive way for me to create the game
3. Investing will give you money back after a certain amount of battles.