As a side note, I'm interested in knowing the average playthrough time of the mod from people who have finished Sacrifice (with or without optional content). I will consume any and all feedback but I'd particularly like to hear about the story/writing aspect. I really want to improve my story/writing craft.
A few, not particularly organized notes from playing through the mod. As is inevitable in this sort of post,
***SPOILERS FOLLOW***Play time: 3:19 + about ten minutes for the final level, getting 15 treasures (with 6 costumes, including the Mithalan Princess costume) (all but one, I think?). I was trying to collect everything, and I almost succeeded.
Regarding the dialog trees, you didn't really make enough of a difference in the responses to the player's decision about what to say. I don't have any examples right off-hand, but in my second play-through, choosing the blood-thirstiest, craziest options available, the responses sometimes seemed like they were completely ignoring what I said. Also, occasionally the normal response leads to a comment by the NPC that is clearly responding partially to a crazier option- I remember this specifically with regards to one of Old Fred's statements (about nightmares), but I'm willing to accept it in his case- he seems like the sort of character who is reading the dialogs along with the player.
On the other hand, the player end of the conversation trees provided enough choice (for me, at least) to build up a good, consistent character for Elena, while being variable across replays. In my first play-through, Elena was a nice, polite, somewhat naïve character, getting more and more bewildered at how her world was falling apart- right up until Drask died, and she snapped and started killing EVERYTHING. In my second, speed-runny playthrough (not yet complete- I was working on it while waiting for the Drask-Statue patch), she was a spoiled brat who got completely drunk on power as soon as she got the energy form. Good job on that part!
I really liked the feeling of watching the entire world get destroyed. You kept the light-to-dark progression of the original game, even to the extent of mostly putting the map areas in the same order, but you managed to do it in a completely different fashion. Where Naija simply discovers darker and darker secrets about Aquaria's history, Elena actually watches (and participates in) the destruction of three races, and is in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of a fourth. It was great.
On a map-design note, I would have preferred it if there were a few more messages in Aquarian scattered throughout the map, although the existing amount was enough to show me just how much one can still read if one only knows about 5-10 glyphs of an alternate alphabet.
I like how one can permanently miss useful-but-not-critical things like the Shield Song if one doesn't explore and talk to everyone. It's fun trying to go through, say, the Energy Temple without the ability to shield- and not take any damage (I got hit three times, mostly while going for the Big Crystal). Nearly as much fun as going through without using the Energy Form for anything but opening doors (and yes, I'm including fighting the Blaster Boss as part of that anything).
- Edwards
