Completed Pokemon [K]arma

Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion, warped by how I personally played the game. Things I do and mention may rub off and be experienced differently to other players.

This was a really awesome bite-sized game! I definitely think you accomplished what you set out to do, which was to code something cool, because it is very cool. I mean, yeah, it's really really short, but I absolutely loved the content of the puzzles (but especially after I figured out Skiddo). I actually felt like a genius when I figured it out, and I felt REALLY cool when I got to experiment with it. Original puzzles are kind of uncommon in fangames, so I'm really happy to see what you did here!

I'd say my only critique is that figuring out the Skiddo mechanic was a bit too cryptic. Although it felt awesome to figure out how it worked, I think I would've gotten the same satisfaction just playing with how the mechanic could pushed over a few puzzles, and then gotten a slight hint or so, y'know? Of course, I know you really didn't mean to add anything more than that, I'm just thinking out loud.

I also need to give credit to the extra effects given to the game. You clearly didn't have to, but you did end up making a story that wraps itself up, giving us a nicely done package. In addition, the map transitions to emulate a different kind of feel of moving around and progression felt really nice. It's like, you definitely could've just made a Jam Game with only default Essentials stuff, but you decided to add visual polish anyway. But hey, I should've expected that kind of standard from a Vendily game!

That's all I have to say!

I spent way longer than I'm willing to admit trying to push a rock into various holes before I solved the Skiddo puzzle.

The mechanics are a blast- every power is fun to mess around with, and the shifting between spirits looks really cool! And the animations for Growlithe and Skiddo's powers are so much fun!

Even though the story's simplistic, it was still really sweet to have a somber little story about finding ghosts and laying them to rest alongside the player!

The Gen 2 aesthetic meshed really nicely with the simple story and mechanics IMO, and the minimap movement was fun and unique!

You know what I'm going to say... Skiddo. And I'm realizing now that there's even a demonstration of how to get across in the GIFs on this thread, lmao.

I think the main part of the issue is the rocks blocking the way to the well. Since pushing a rock into a hole is a standard Pokemon puzzle, that seems to be what everyone tries first. (Although the "bridge under construction" sign probably puts the idea of building a bridge in their head, too) Honestly, since they're not really blocking much- the only thing past them is the well, which you can't get into without Octillery- I'd personally suggest just removing them altogether, so players don't waste their time pushing them around.

I think it'd be nice if there were a button to let you go in reverse when cycling through spirits. (If I want to go from Octillery to Skiddo, for example, I have to go Octillery->Normal->Growlithe->Skiddo, rather than just Octillery->Skiddo)

I also think it'd be nice if Skiddo could just push rocks without having to press Z every time- it can be a bit annoying to have to press it repeatedly (Of course, I mostly had that frustration because I tried to push the rock in the hole, so there's a good chance it's not actually a problem for the small distances you're supposed to push rocks)

I'm not sure if this is an error or not, but there doesn't seem to be an animation for the ink ball being shot out- instead, it just appears at the tile it's aimed at. (I think Pokemon Fairies had an animation for a projectile going out from the player - you might ask Armin how they got that working?)

Oh sweetie, be careful - comma after oh
with you then - comma after you
the action button (Z), You - you shouldn't be capitalized
Oh hello there - comma after oh
to give you though - comma after you
So tired though - comma after tired

I loved the simple yet effective style of the game overall. Gaining the abilities was a cool feature. Using the different abilities to traverse the caves was very satisfying. While messing around in that first cave I realized you could bounce off of things with the skiddo ability and knew right away I could use it on the signs to get across the gap. Although I must admit I was kind of hoping I had stubbled on some secret built in speed running mechanic by doing this. Of course that was the way to solve that bit. It could be cool to add multiple ways to solve puzzles. In general expanding on this type of game/gameplay would be really cool. The game gave me some vibes of when I played Link to the Past. I definitely got stuck in some puzzles in that game. Anyways I liked the ending although I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Did the player gain the abilities from the ghosts of those pokemon? And what of the player themselves? Did I just die at the end?! Hmm I mean it makes you think. I like how you can kind of decide for yourself what the ending means to you. Let your imagination fill in the blanks.