Slow Burn subtracts from fresh premises first (or at least, it should!), so you can still accumulate accepted premises even while it's active, provided you're summoning more than one premise to the field at a time.
... Of course, it's undeniable that it's a little overpowered at the moment. Still trying to figure out the right balance, there.
That sure is great then. And sorry for that it might be a little abrupt but, I have sent an email about translation request to your mailbox, could you check it at your leisure?
Beat the demo so far, but only with 2 days to spare (cause I wanna talk with Isaiah, and I grabbed all the evidence since I wasn't sure if it was optional). I really like the art direction and premise, though I found some of the decisions very frustrating. Particularly, while in the first layer I thought our protagonist mostly seemed to have the option of being intelligent and competent but naive, uninformed, and out of her depth, the second layer I felt she got stuck with the idiot ball a bit much and I didn't like that.
Characters from my favorite to least favorite, though I have been avoiding side stories except Isaiah's in the hopes of building up enough time before execution to do something dramatic later, so I'm sure many characters will have been missed which is no fault of theirs:
Most Liked: - Gardener
- Lucia Trattoria
- Niemi
- Prof. Naysmith
- Ms. Sable (protagonist)
- Marciferous
- Kieran
- Overly helpful tutorial guard
Neutral:
- Walraven Kask
- Irene
- Avery
- Alma
- Isaiah
- Aunt and Uncle
- The general populace of the city, onscreen
- Grandfather
- Trial Judge
- Quayle
Least Disliked:
- Mr. Lutwidge
- Guards at the bridge to the Faith district
- Guards drinking on the job who then also assault you in 2nd layer Bad End.
- The general populace of the city, offscreen
- Myrra
I quite liked Trattoria's devotion to actual justice and good civic governance, despite her position as an antagonist. I really don't like how unintelligent, incompetent, and arrogant Fen Myrra is, and how unwilling to reject her idiocy the main character frequently is. An example is the conversation after the 3rd blood harvest-- it's pretty clear that Marciferous two days ago wouldn't do that, and if it was any of the options suggested certainly wouldn't have chosen Quayle. She also recently drastically changed her behavior after being taking into a private 1-on-1 space by the obvious villain who's promoting racism. And, like, we should be keeping an eye out for someone with mind control powers, obviously, after last time and the introductory exposition about what we're doing wrt the corruption.
Anyhow, the game is good fun regardless and I look forward to chapter 3. I just hope that this doesn't end up suddenly ruining all the characters and subplots and turning terrible like Medieval Cop :(
I finally got an opportunity to place the second layer! I'm not normally one to read a lot of game conversations with focus, but with every encounter with a person potentially giving evidence and information to aid in a fight it felt like it was really important to be invested in the dialogue. It only got a little laggy during the end fight with some of the attacks, but also I'm playing on Steam Deck and so whatever translations my OS is doing to run the EXE may be contributing to the slow down.
I had a passing thought about an alternate game mode for RLZ where it's focused entirely on the battles, like how Inscryption has Kaycee's mod. I would love to just play with deck combos with less perceived threat behind them. Love your work, as usual.
I may be inclined to admit that I have actually paper-prototyped a "pure gameplay" mode not entirely dissimilar to what you're envisioning here. The day may come when I undertake the effort to implement that mode... But for now, I'm focusing primarily on finishing the main story!
It's all sort of intertwined with itself, though-- I'm still getting tons of actionable feedback about ways the core debate mode can be refined and expanded, so if this theoretical mode eventually does come to exist, I expect it'll be built on a more solid foundation than what exists currently.
Slowdown on Steam Deck is interesting-- I would expect it to have no problems. If it was just in the last debate, that could suggest I may need to simplify the geometry of the background, or perhaps the lighting configuration of just that scene. I'll look into it-- thanks for the tip!
Potentially. The exp awarded by a debate is distributed evenly across all participating arguments. If failing to present evidence causes you to use more cards in the debate, more cards will get exp. However, the total amount of exp awarded remains the same. It depends entirely on if you want to distribute that exp to more arguments or not.
How do I change my argument just before fighting? I seem only to be able to change my rhetoric.
And about the countdown system. Will it reset to 5 days or just increase the day count by 1? If that the case should I just reset game for better card and time management?
And there's no way to get more money?
Is there anything I can do with the bonus exp thing? I can't seem to be able to do anything.
Once you're in the predebate menu, your arguments are "locked-in". You gotta change 'em prior to invocation.
The days remaining are partially replenished at the beginning of each part, although not necessarily by a fixed amount. You have my guarantee that you'll be given enough time to complete said part, even if you run the clock down to almost zero in the prior one.
There are ways to get more money. One, you'll encounter without doing anything particularly fancy, so just keep playing and you'll find out.
Should be pretty easy, in fact. All of the in-game text is stored externally in JSON and tsv files and read-in at runtime. You should be able to find them in the zip file in the "Languages" subdirectory, if you want to have a look at what's in there.
As for the actual process of making a new language package (and subsequently testing to make sure it works), that's probably a bit too complicated to explain in an Itch comment, so shoot me an email at developer@realitylayerzero.com if you're still interested and I'll walk you through how to do it.
Finally played Second Layer… man I was interested before but now I’m a big fan and I’m really sad I have to wait for more, it’s such a big upgrade from first layer, the writing is also really nice (maybe a bit too leading even tho it tries to be vague?). My only sadness is having found adventure kid too late to actually do its story (since I used a book and ran out of slots). The other bit of annoyance is that it’s hard to know what reward each story gets so with a red starter deck I started getting a lot of blue rethorics without arguments to use them on, I got it eventually but now I feel I’m in a weird place full of mixed cards. I guess I could make a new save and try different stuff though, so it’s not too bad!
After making a better deck, I was able to beat the second layer boss? rather easily (and a whole lot faster,) but something strange that I've been having issues with is while the whole rest of the game is doing perfectly fine, at some point, debate actions, such as selecting cards and playing my arguments feels unresponsive at the beginning of my turn. After a few moments, it works just fine, but it gets really annoying after awhile as I spam click on my cards for a solid 5 seconds or something, and it happens every turn, slowing down gameplay, for absolutely no reason.
Another question/concern I have is how do I bring my progress to new versions of the game? Since the version I have currently doesn't have the next few sections of the game.
The first thing you mentioned sounds like it might be a bug. I'll need to investigate that. Sorry about the annoyance, there!
Continuing into the third part, whenever it releases, will work much the same as continuing into the second part from the first did. Each new version will read from the same save data location as the current version (%localappdata%), so all of your old saves will still be visible-- assuming they weren't deleted, and that you're using the same device, that is. Just hang onto your cleared saves and let the magic of mildly clever programming take care of the rest!
( debate actions, such as selecting cards and playing my arguments feels unresponsive at the beginning of my turn. After a few moments, it works just fine, but it gets really annoying after awhile as I spam click on my cards for a solid 5 seconds or something, and it happens every turn, slowing down gameplay, for absolutely no reason.)
yea i got that too i thought my computer was just slow but it seems its not just me. also u dont have to spam click just hover your mouse over the cards whille switching cards youre hovering over and when the cards come up then u can play
Your game is very good. Fight/debate system is unique, clever and fun.
I was thinking that this game is really non-linear, more than in fact it is. After I got to the end of First Layer I have tried changing some of decisions in story and got surprised that I couldn't actually. This is best illusion of choice I have ever seen in a game.
Also, I am using linux but got to run it with this windows emulator https://www.winehq.org (If someone also wants to, you need to install DXVK additionally, else it will crash). No bugs.
Edit: on second layer beginning, in University Entrance I am able to interact with "Whispering students" when they already moved away. However after re entering room that dialog option disappeared.
Thank you very much for pointing the issue with the students out! I've just applied a fix for that and a few other issues. You can find that update in version 0.3.2.1!
A native Linux port is certainly somewhere on my to-do list. It should also work seamlessly with Proton (for Steam users).
I don't know if i suck at the game but i am stuck at the kask bossfight, and it does not help that i have to go through the cutscene again every single time and when i make in the kask boss fight and try to save it and lose its gone when i try again i guess its some sort of a glitch plz help cuz making a deck again is annoying.
You can save in the middle of cutscenes, so I'd recommend doing the following:
1). Sometime before the debate begins, create the deck you intend on using.
2). Use the "save" feature to write to a new save slot while in the scene immediately before the debate (closer to the end, if possible). Remember the number of the slot, in case you need to reload.
3). Use the shift key to fast-forward through dialog you've already read.
4). If things are going poorly during the debate, press escape to bring up the forfeiture prompt. Re-adjust as necessary.
I'd also highly recommend bringing cards that specialize in criticizing Pathos, if you have any.
Awesome game. I really enjoy the debate system, and how the resources that you're desperately trying to build up come back to you when you use cards the right way. The only thing I hate about this game is how time consuming it is. I've sunk hours into the game getting through small areas of dialogue, which I do enjoy, but sometimes it goes a little slow which also makes it so much worse because there's no cutscene skip for when I've lost in an area and trying to get back to the fight itself. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but my debates can last an irl hour or two, which does not help with the time consuming nature of the game.
An hour?! Whew, that's... That's quite a bit. I guess I need to consider further balance changes...
Something that might help with dialog length is using the "fastforward" button-- which is mapped to "shift" by default (the same key as the run button). You can use this to skip through text, which is useful if you're not interested in re-reading.
i havent encountered the same problem but i do understand not wanting to redo an entire dialogue because you lost a fight. Id recommend to save right before entering a battle
(which i know you usually cant cus the battles are sprung on you but u can still do it on the second try)
As for the battles taking you hours idk what to say i havent encountered that problem the battles usually take like 10 minutes and it takes 2 tries for the hard ones.
edit: id like to add that im getting a delay on when to turn starts and when i can select cards of like 20 seconds and its really annoying
That delay sounds like it could be a bug, or perhaps hardware-related. Would you say your PC is underpowered? Does the game appear to be lagging otherwise? (I may have gone too crazy with the lighting in some of the debate stages...)
yeah, I think it’s due to me making really bad decks. I once accidentally screwed myself over by selecting an argument that used the law one (forgot what it’s called,) when I didn’t have much of the things in my deck, so whenever I’d get close to pulling it, he’d have a good amount of time to have amassed his resources that I relentlessly beat down to whack my law things back to 0. And unfortunately, my rounds against tough opponents end up like that, thankfully it’s only been two, one of which I didn’t beat yet, cuz I don’t have as much time to play anymore.
You don't? As far as I know, even in the most extreme case, you should be able to switch to a Logos/Ethos deck, or an Ethos/Pathos deck. Swap one of your non-Ethos arguments with Law and Order.
Tricolor decks are still workable, but they're tricky to wrap your head around.
Rhetoric doesn't level up, but you can find level II and III critique cards just by playing normally. Depending on your choices, you may already have some! Otherwise, consider pursuing some optional objectives, since that's a consistent way of finding new cards. That being said, level I critique cards are less expensive than the higher-level variants, so they tend to maintain a certain usefulness even with the higher-level variants available to you.
The Enthymeme is a means of passively accruing premises. Its "pitch" (or color) determines what kind of premises you gain at the start of your turn, and its tier (or level) determines how many you get (up to +3). The pitch also somewhat increases the weights of arguments that use premises of the same color/mode. The Enthymeme is symmetrical, so its effects apply to both sides equally.
Debate Pace simply refers to how many actions-per-turn each side can take. At a pace of one (the default), you can only perform one "action" (e.g. playing a card, resonating an argument) before your turn ends. At two, you can perform two actions, and so on and so forth until the cap of 3 actions-per-turn. Debate Pace will reset to default after a certain number of turns since it was increased pass.
Proposal slots determine how many proposal cards (e.g. shields, reflectors, status effects) you can have active at the same time. Run out of proposal slots, and when you try to play a new proposal, you'll have to replace one of your old proposals, thereby losing its effect. You can increase your number of proposal slots by simply progressing the story, or by using certain pieces of equipment.
wait why is there the horror tag. i really cant handle horror elements ( not jumpscares but genuine horror) can u explain what u mean by putting that tag
There are some horror-adjacent themes, like the occult elements intrinsic to the invocation ritual, as well as some influence on my own writing from writers known for horror-- specifically Lovecraft and Ryukishi07. Beyond that, it's mainly an aesthetic label.
I think it's really easy to get carried away in horror and create something that ends up being just kind of gross. That's something I'm consciously trying to avoid here.
Subjectively, I would not say Reality Layer Zero is particularly scary, although there are certainly tense moments. It's my hope, as well as my intention, that the evocations of horror are more in the vein of "gothic horror"-- magnificent and gloomy, perhaps, but not scary in a way that might meaningfully put-off a contemporary audience sensitive to such things. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Interesting and engaging story. Presenting evidence during battles really does help make the themes cohesive with the gameplay, it isn't just a reskin of roguelite card systems. The backstory tying into the starter deck is a nice touch and the cards you get from it are sensical. I don't feel like the type of response selected in minor events really reflects the type of cards you gain from these encounters, however.
The battles themselves feel a bit too slow, and it's easy to fall into long loops trying to build up ressources while preventing the opponent to do so at the same time. This is especially true when experimenting with decks on first runs.
I tried various combinations and backstories and ended up with a lot of different save files, I haven't been able to delete them so there's a lot of clutter in my menu. That said, Second Layer comes out in a few hours so maybe all of this will be a non issue in the update.
While there isn't currently a built-in UI for deleting save files, you can delete the save files manually in the Reality Layer Zero subdirectory of your %localappdata% folder to help reduce some of the clutter. Kind of a lame solution, but there ya go. Meanwhile, consider in-game file management taken as a feature request!
alr i understand why its not a paid game so here is my feedback: fucking love the combat its the greatest ever. Kerk is a little too easy. Art is great. The areas are great i never got lost and always knew where to go whitout being explicitely led. Never understood why i had to decide my story at the beginning it never came up again or maybe it did invisibly idk.
The choices you make at the beginning determine three of the four arguments that appear in your starting deck (the fourth is chosen when you first visit the Garden), as well as your starting rhetoric and equipment. There may also be some minor changes to dialog depending on your chosen background, but nothing very elaborate (yet). Thanks for playing!
will definitily buy it on steam when it comes out you got me super invested in the story i was legitimately bouncing in my chair when i beat kerk cus i just hated him that much maybe also cus i died 3 times before that to the little dumpass with a gun(i hope thats not spoilers ill remove the comment if you tell me to)
Not yet! I can only confirm that development will continue, and that the next part of the story will release as a free update on June 1st (in about 2 days).
ngl, I found this game looking in the comment section of an article that was related to Ace Attorney in some way. I honestly don't even remember what the article was about, but the game looked interesting, so I made note of it.
Streamed it for some friends tonight and it was honestly really fun! The conflict system can be a little slow but it's so satisfying to 'outwit' the AI's logic and to hit them with the info that you have and break through.
I'm invested in the story and will stream more of it, but genuinely a fun experience so far!
Interesting Story overall, it definitely got me interested, however it got slightly confusing around when Irene was explaining some points.
Gameplay wise, it definitely has a pretty fun type of strategy when it comes of risking points to get more or defend another set. Even though that certain enemies are a tiny bit unfair when it comes to gaining points and shooting you down for most of it.
If theres any *real* complaint about anything, it would be the effect on one of the big cards, especially about the effect of being able to use 2 actions per turn. It kinda makes the whole risk of trying to use it to backfire heavily as it also affects the opponents.
Absolutely would love to see more on it otherwise!
Good feedback! Top of my list of gameplay improvements for the next major update is to "mellow out" the opponent AI a little bit, to reduce that unfairness and increase how in-control the player feels, so consider that totally noted.
As for Pace Up (the resonance effect on the big card "Clockwork"), I also agree it's a skosh problematic at the moment. It's possible that mechanics which show up in future chapters may help dial-back how off-the-rails it feels, but if not, it may need a rework. I'm thinking of either "localizing" the Pace Up effect for each debate participant such that it functions more like a Haste status in a more traditional JRPG, or perhaps decoupling the debate pace and acceptance rate mechanics somehow, so that only the "activating" player gets the "increased acceptance rate" benefit (at least at first). I'm open to suggestions on this one.
Wow! So much fun. I discovered this on Steam by almost complete accident, but what a pleasant surprise! Absolutely loved it, and have my eyes firmly fixed. I want more! Best of luck with development.
Just finished played one time through. I have no idea of the possibility space from the branching dialogues but from what I experienced I think you expertly captured a feeling of consequences to choices and urgency that I don't get from other games. The game genuinely felt like the stakes are high and I had only one chance to make things right, even with the prior knowledge that I could have just saved and loaded the game and reset my mistakes.
The combat is fascinating to me and I think it was a great idea to have 3 effective pools to build from and attack on, which makes it not so trivially optimizable to build a deck around. Combine that with the strongly tied themes of debate behind the deck-based combat and I see a very strong base for a game here. I will eagerly await for further updates!
Played the demo, and I want more! There's just so much I like about the game that it feels like it was made to hit all of what I like about Deckbuilders. This is more for encouragement, but I can't wait to see more, and I'll make sure to share it with others so that they can see this!
+ The finale of Chapter 1 is JUICY. (It is dramatic and scary, but will make you more determined than ever to solve the mystery.)
+ Chapter 2 explains a lot of lore about the world and involves an academic mystery.
+ There is a "countdown" to finish each chapter (5 days), so you want to choose which missions you want to finish before the 5 days are up. CHOOSE WISELY!
+ There are lots of references to real-world rhetoric/philosophy (Perfect for nerds like me!)
CONS
- When the game first released the combat (ie. debate) was slow, but the latest update seems to have improve the combat! It now feels faster paced.
- Terminologies can be confusing (I tend to think about combat in terms of Energy Points and Damage, instead of Premises and Resonance.)
Conclusion: A fun and exciting turn-based strategy game, with lots of dialogue and lovable characters. It has very few issues and is well worth playing.
Have been enjoying it so far, but stuck the first time I've got to Justice square, I think I'm meant to talk to a lone guard, but can't find one other than this guy who doesn't really interact.
Minor feedback, skipping the text animation is awkward because of the way the text can pause because of end of line, full stop or comma, and they all behave slightly differently. and I occasionally skip the last bit of text by accident.
A potentially easy fix could be preventing skipping ahead when its an end of line [v] if you press a button within something like .2s of it appearing. Or an option to speed up text animation
Thanks very much for the feedback. You can find the guard down the alleyway as pictured here. Might have made him a little *too* out of sight, heh heh...
Gonna totally figure out a better way to prevent accidental text skipping, but for the time being, if you miss the last little bit of text, you can press tab (or L3) to view the text backlog. Should alleviate some of the annoyance!
Yeah, may make sense to put him a bit more visible, like here. until now the game's basically taught me that you can't go into areas that are off the main path, so I didn't even see the gap in the fence
Nice about the L3. could be good to mention that early (maybe i just missed it lol)
ah, errored trying to edit the deck (god isn't making games annoying)
it was talking to the guy you pointed out, then going into the deck to edit, going out, going in again, clicking around a few times (i was a bit unsure what to change)
Hey, fair enough, I'll see if I can reproduce it. Thanks for the tip!
EDIT: I have managed to reproduce the error. I'll add a fix for this issue as well as some of the others you mentioned here in the next update. For now though, for yourself and those who might be reading, if you've got a card "grabbed" while in the deck editor, DON'T back out of the editor! Drop the card first!
EDIT 2: Should be fixed as of version 2. I also went ahead and addressed the other two things you mentioned (accidental text skipping and finding the isolated guard). See Patch Notes #1.
(disclaimer-- had the pleasure of playtesting the beta for this game)
Reality Layer Zero is a fascinating blend of mystery visual novel storytelling, adventure game exploration, and unique, debate-themed card RPG gameplay.
Overall, everything in the game is super well made, and the story, music and art direction all do a great job at complementing one another. There's obviously been a lot of time spent tuning the card gameplay to make it have a satisfying flow. In the first layer that's available, combat never felt unfair, and it was often extremely satisfying. At first it can seem a bit daunting, but, even as someone who doesn't really play a lot of card RPGs, I found that I was able to conjure up and execute some fun strategies by my second hour of play. And on a second playthrough, I was able to come up with and execute some really fun strats to take down the harder debates more effectively.
The atmosphere of the story is very distinct, and the mystery setup within it is so juicy-- I'm dying for some answers (but I can wait patiently!) The writing is also very strong, which is great, given how a good deal of the game is spent reading. The first layer does a great job at establishing the brooding, uneasy tone of the town, while also allowing for some occasional moments of wit and humor, and, of course, lots of intrigue and setup of deeper things to come. I also appreciate the inclusion of a backlog, as well as the ability to save and quit mid-dialogue so you don't have to wait for gameplay sequences if you have to go somewhere.
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes mystery VNs or adventure games like 07th Expansion works or Ace Attorney. And if you like RPGs that go for a unique style of combat, the systems here offer some leeway to play around with various builds in just the first layer.
Most special shout outs go to the expressive spritework, memorable CGs and fantastic music! Again, I'm stoked to see more in the world of Reality Layer Zero in the future!
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i loved what i played so far, the debate system and story are both pretty good
/edit
Won’t the slow burn a bit too powerful？since all the argument needs at least one premises to use，and normally one turn only increase one premise，
as long as the slow burn enabled before they already has enough premises，there will be no chance that enemy can argument.
Moreover, by streamlining the card deck, we can ensure that the slow burn is almost uninterrupted，so to accumulate premises quickly.
Slow Burn subtracts from fresh premises first (or at least, it should!), so you can still accumulate accepted premises even while it's active, provided you're summoning more than one premise to the field at a time.
... Of course, it's undeniable that it's a little overpowered at the moment. Still trying to figure out the right balance, there.
That sure is great then. And sorry for that it might be a little abrupt but, I have sent an email about translation request to your mailbox, could you check it at your leisure?
Beat the demo so far, but only with 2 days to spare (cause I wanna talk with Isaiah, and I grabbed all the evidence since I wasn't sure if it was optional). I really like the art direction and premise, though I found some of the decisions very frustrating. Particularly, while in the first layer I thought our protagonist mostly seemed to have the option of being intelligent and competent but naive, uninformed, and out of her depth, the second layer I felt she got stuck with the idiot ball a bit much and I didn't like that.
Characters from my favorite to least favorite, though I have been avoiding side stories except Isaiah's in the hopes of building up enough time before execution to do something dramatic later, so I'm sure many characters will have been missed which is no fault of theirs:
Most Liked:
- Gardener
- Lucia Trattoria
- Niemi
- Prof. Naysmith
- Ms. Sable (protagonist)
- Marciferous
- Kieran
- Overly helpful tutorial guard
Neutral:
- Walraven Kask
- Irene
- Avery
- Alma
- Isaiah
- Aunt and Uncle
- The general populace of the city, onscreen
- Grandfather
- Trial Judge
- Quayle
Least Disliked:
- Mr. Lutwidge
- Guards at the bridge to the Faith district
- Guards drinking on the job who then also assault you in 2nd layer Bad End.
- The general populace of the city, offscreen
- Myrra
I quite liked Trattoria's devotion to actual justice and good civic governance, despite her position as an antagonist. I really don't like how unintelligent, incompetent, and arrogant Fen Myrra is, and how unwilling to reject her idiocy the main character frequently is. An example is the conversation after the 3rd blood harvest-- it's pretty clear that Marciferous two days ago wouldn't do that, and if it was any of the options suggested certainly wouldn't have chosen Quayle. She also recently drastically changed her behavior after being taking into a private 1-on-1 space by the obvious villain who's promoting racism. And, like, we should be keeping an eye out for someone with mind control powers, obviously, after last time and the introductory exposition about what we're doing wrt the corruption.
Anyhow, the game is good fun regardless and I look forward to chapter 3. I just hope that this doesn't end up suddenly ruining all the characters and subplots and turning terrible like Medieval Cop :(
I finally got an opportunity to place the second layer! I'm not normally one to read a lot of game conversations with focus, but with every encounter with a person potentially giving evidence and information to aid in a fight it felt like it was really important to be invested in the dialogue. It only got a little laggy during the end fight with some of the attacks, but also I'm playing on Steam Deck and so whatever translations my OS is doing to run the EXE may be contributing to the slow down.
I had a passing thought about an alternate game mode for RLZ where it's focused entirely on the battles, like how Inscryption has Kaycee's mod. I would love to just play with deck combos with less perceived threat behind them. Love your work, as usual.
I may be inclined to admit that I have actually paper-prototyped a "pure gameplay" mode not entirely dissimilar to what you're envisioning here. The day may come when I undertake the effort to implement that mode... But for now, I'm focusing primarily on finishing the main story!
It's all sort of intertwined with itself, though-- I'm still getting tons of actionable feedback about ways the core debate mode can be refined and expanded, so if this theoretical mode eventually does come to exist, I expect it'll be built on a more solid foundation than what exists currently.
Slowdown on Steam Deck is interesting-- I would expect it to have no problems. If it was just in the last debate, that could suggest I may need to simplify the geometry of the background, or perhaps the lighting configuration of just that scene. I'll look into it-- thanks for the tip!
Would it be better if I intentionally fell to present evidence just to get more exp on my arguments?
Potentially. The exp awarded by a debate is distributed evenly across all participating arguments. If failing to present evidence causes you to use more cards in the debate, more cards will get exp. However, the total amount of exp awarded remains the same. It depends entirely on if you want to distribute that exp to more arguments or not.
How do I change my argument just before fighting? I seem only to be able to change my rhetoric.
And about the countdown system. Will it reset to 5 days or just increase the day count by 1? If that the case should I just reset game for better card and time management?
And there's no way to get more money?
Is there anything I can do with the bonus exp thing? I can't seem to be able to do anything.
Once you're in the predebate menu, your arguments are "locked-in". You gotta change 'em prior to invocation.
The days remaining are partially replenished at the beginning of each part, although not necessarily by a fixed amount. You have my guarantee that you'll be given enough time to complete said part, even if you run the clock down to almost zero in the prior one.
There are ways to get more money. One, you'll encounter without doing anything particularly fancy, so just keep playing and you'll find out.
Thank you!
Another thing is I am very excited about your game and want to transalte it. Will that be possible?
Should be pretty easy, in fact. All of the in-game text is stored externally in JSON and tsv files and read-in at runtime. You should be able to find them in the zip file in the "Languages" subdirectory, if you want to have a look at what's in there.
As for the actual process of making a new language package (and subsequently testing to make sure it works), that's probably a bit too complicated to explain in an Itch comment, so shoot me an email at developer@realitylayerzero.com if you're still interested and I'll walk you through how to do it.
Finally played Second Layer… man I was interested before but now I’m a big fan and I’m really sad I have to wait for more, it’s such a big upgrade from first layer, the writing is also really nice (maybe a bit too leading even tho it tries to be vague?). My only sadness is having found adventure kid too late to actually do its story (since I used a book and ran out of slots). The other bit of annoyance is that it’s hard to know what reward each story gets so with a red starter deck I started getting a lot of blue rethorics without arguments to use them on, I got it eventually but now I feel I’m in a weird place full of mixed cards. I guess I could make a new save and try different stuff though, so it’s not too bad!
Keep it up!
After making a better deck, I was able to beat the second layer boss? rather easily (and a whole lot faster,) but something strange that I've been having issues with is while the whole rest of the game is doing perfectly fine, at some point, debate actions, such as selecting cards and playing my arguments feels unresponsive at the beginning of my turn. After a few moments, it works just fine, but it gets really annoying after awhile as I spam click on my cards for a solid 5 seconds or something, and it happens every turn, slowing down gameplay, for absolutely no reason.
Another question/concern I have is how do I bring my progress to new versions of the game? Since the version I have currently doesn't have the next few sections of the game.
The first thing you mentioned sounds like it might be a bug. I'll need to investigate that. Sorry about the annoyance, there!
Continuing into the third part, whenever it releases, will work much the same as continuing into the second part from the first did. Each new version will read from the same save data location as the current version (%localappdata%), so all of your old saves will still be visible-- assuming they weren't deleted, and that you're using the same device, that is. Just hang onto your cleared saves and let the magic of mildly clever programming take care of the rest!
alright, sounds good.
( debate actions, such as selecting cards and playing my arguments feels unresponsive at the beginning of my turn. After a few moments, it works just fine, but it gets really annoying after awhile as I spam click on my cards for a solid 5 seconds or something, and it happens every turn, slowing down gameplay, for absolutely no reason.)
yea i got that too i thought my computer was just slow but it seems its not just me. also u dont have to spam click just hover your mouse over the cards whille switching cards youre hovering over and when the cards come up then u can play
Your game is very good. Fight/debate system is unique, clever and fun.
I was thinking that this game is really non-linear, more than in fact it is. After I got to the end of First Layer I have tried changing some of decisions in story and got surprised that I couldn't actually. This is best illusion of choice I have ever seen in a game.
Also, I am using linux but got to run it with this windows emulator https://www.winehq.org (If someone also wants to, you need to install DXVK additionally, else it will crash). No bugs.
Edit: on second layer beginning, in University Entrance I am able to interact with "Whispering students" when they already moved away. However after re entering room that dialog option disappeared.
Thank you very much for pointing the issue with the students out! I've just applied a fix for that and a few other issues. You can find that update in version 0.3.2.1!
A native Linux port is certainly somewhere on my to-do list. It should also work seamlessly with Proton (for Steam users).
Thanks you too! :)
I don't know if i suck at the game but i am stuck at the kask bossfight, and it does not help that i have to go through the cutscene again every single time and when i make in the kask boss fight and try to save it and lose its gone when i try again i guess its some sort of a glitch plz help cuz making a deck again is annoying.
You can save in the middle of cutscenes, so I'd recommend doing the following:
1). Sometime before the debate begins, create the deck you intend on using.
2). Use the "save" feature to write to a new save slot while in the scene immediately before the debate (closer to the end, if possible). Remember the number of the slot, in case you need to reload.
3). Use the shift key to fast-forward through dialog you've already read.
4). If things are going poorly during the debate, press escape to bring up the forfeiture prompt. Re-adjust as necessary.
I'd also highly recommend bringing cards that specialize in criticizing Pathos, if you have any.
I hope that helps. You can do this! I believe!
Awesome game. I really enjoy the debate system, and how the resources that you're desperately trying to build up come back to you when you use cards the right way. The only thing I hate about this game is how time consuming it is. I've sunk hours into the game getting through small areas of dialogue, which I do enjoy, but sometimes it goes a little slow which also makes it so much worse because there's no cutscene skip for when I've lost in an area and trying to get back to the fight itself. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but my debates can last an irl hour or two, which does not help with the time consuming nature of the game.
An hour?! Whew, that's... That's quite a bit. I guess I need to consider further balance changes...
Something that might help with dialog length is using the "fastforward" button-- which is mapped to "shift" by default (the same key as the run button). You can use this to skip through text, which is useful if you're not interested in re-reading.
i havent encountered the same problem but i do understand not wanting to redo an entire dialogue because you lost a fight. Id recommend to save right before entering a battle
(which i know you usually cant cus the battles are sprung on you but u can still do it on the second try)
As for the battles taking you hours idk what to say i havent encountered that problem the battles usually take like 10 minutes and it takes 2 tries for the hard ones.
edit: id like to add that im getting a delay on when to turn starts and when i can select cards of like 20 seconds and its really annoying
That delay sounds like it could be a bug, or perhaps hardware-related. Would you say your PC is underpowered? Does the game appear to be lagging otherwise? (I may have gone too crazy with the lighting in some of the debate stages...)
honnestly yea its probably hardware related since the dialogue boxes also delay sometimes so dont worry about it ( also my pc is poopoo )
yeah, I think it’s due to me making really bad decks. I once accidentally screwed myself over by selecting an argument that used the law one (forgot what it’s called,) when I didn’t have much of the things in my deck, so whenever I’d get close to pulling it, he’d have a good amount of time to have amassed his resources that I relentlessly beat down to whack my law things back to 0. And unfortunately, my rounds against tough opponents end up like that, thankfully it’s only been two, one of which I didn’t beat yet, cuz I don’t have as much time to play anymore.
id recommend only making decks with two of the three things since they are more consistent and easier to shield
but I didn’t have enough arguments to use only two elements.
You don't? As far as I know, even in the most extreme case, you should be able to switch to a Logos/Ethos deck, or an Ethos/Pathos deck. Swap one of your non-Ethos arguments with Law and Order.
Tricolor decks are still workable, but they're tricky to wrap your head around.
Maybe try something like 9-8-4 distribution of premises? That works great for me.
This game needs more attention it's a really master piece I'll wait for the release of the whole game
how do i level my cards i see them having level 2 cards taking away 4 modes each hit while im here with basic cards
could you also explain other combat related things such as enthymeme, debate pace, proposal slots
Sure, I can explain.
Rhetoric doesn't level up, but you can find level II and III critique cards just by playing normally. Depending on your choices, you may already have some! Otherwise, consider pursuing some optional objectives, since that's a consistent way of finding new cards. That being said, level I critique cards are less expensive than the higher-level variants, so they tend to maintain a certain usefulness even with the higher-level variants available to you.
The Enthymeme is a means of passively accruing premises. Its "pitch" (or color) determines what kind of premises you gain at the start of your turn, and its tier (or level) determines how many you get (up to +3). The pitch also somewhat increases the weights of arguments that use premises of the same color/mode. The Enthymeme is symmetrical, so its effects apply to both sides equally.
Debate Pace simply refers to how many actions-per-turn each side can take. At a pace of one (the default), you can only perform one "action" (e.g. playing a card, resonating an argument) before your turn ends. At two, you can perform two actions, and so on and so forth until the cap of 3 actions-per-turn. Debate Pace will reset to default after a certain number of turns since it was increased pass.
Proposal slots determine how many proposal cards (e.g. shields, reflectors, status effects) you can have active at the same time. Run out of proposal slots, and when you try to play a new proposal, you'll have to replace one of your old proposals, thereby losing its effect. You can increase your number of proposal slots by simply progressing the story, or by using certain pieces of equipment.
thanks for the explanation
i really appreciate you answering all my questions and thank you very much for adding so much details
I appreciate you asking!
wait why is there the horror tag. i really cant handle horror elements ( not jumpscares but genuine horror) can u explain what u mean by putting that tag
There are some horror-adjacent themes, like the occult elements intrinsic to the invocation ritual, as well as some influence on my own writing from writers known for horror-- specifically Lovecraft and Ryukishi07. Beyond that, it's mainly an aesthetic label.
I think it's really easy to get carried away in horror and create something that ends up being just kind of gross. That's something I'm consciously trying to avoid here.
Subjectively, I would not say Reality Layer Zero is particularly scary, although there are certainly tense moments. It's my hope, as well as my intention, that the evocations of horror are more in the vein of "gothic horror"-- magnificent and gloomy, perhaps, but not scary in a way that might meaningfully put-off a contemporary audience sensitive to such things. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Maravilhoso
Really interesting game you have here. If you haven't released the demo onto steam, I would do so now. Keep it up.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. https://www.youtube.com/@Levont
Interesting and engaging story. Presenting evidence during battles really does help make the themes cohesive with the gameplay, it isn't just a reskin of roguelite card systems. The backstory tying into the starter deck is a nice touch and the cards you get from it are sensical. I don't feel like the type of response selected in minor events really reflects the type of cards you gain from these encounters, however.
The battles themselves feel a bit too slow, and it's easy to fall into long loops trying to build up ressources while preventing the opponent to do so at the same time. This is especially true when experimenting with decks on first runs.
I tried various combinations and backstories and ended up with a lot of different save files, I haven't been able to delete them so there's a lot of clutter in my menu. That said, Second Layer comes out in a few hours so maybe all of this will be a non issue in the update.
While there isn't currently a built-in UI for deleting save files, you can delete the save files manually in the Reality Layer Zero subdirectory of your %localappdata% folder to help reduce some of the clutter. Kind of a lame solution, but there ya go. Meanwhile, consider in-game file management taken as a feature request!
how is this not a paid game
alr i understand why its not a paid game so here is my feedback: fucking love the combat its the greatest ever. Kerk is a little too easy. Art is great. The areas are great i never got lost and always knew where to go whitout being explicitely led. Never understood why i had to decide my story at the beginning it never came up again or maybe it did invisibly idk.
The choices you make at the beginning determine three of the four arguments that appear in your starting deck (the fourth is chosen when you first visit the Garden), as well as your starting rhetoric and equipment. There may also be some minor changes to dialog depending on your chosen background, but nothing very elaborate (yet). Thanks for playing!
will definitily buy it on steam when it comes out you got me super invested in the story i was legitimately bouncing in my chair when i beat kerk cus i just hated him that much maybe also cus i died 3 times before that to the little dumpass with a gun(i hope thats not spoilers ill remove the comment if you tell me to)
is there an expected release date and price for the game
Not yet! I can only confirm that development will continue, and that the next part of the story will release as a free update on June 1st (in about 2 days).
I love how this game challenges me to think outside the box and try new strategies.
ngl, I found this game looking in the comment section of an article that was related to Ace Attorney in some way. I honestly don't even remember what the article was about, but the game looked interesting, so I made note of it.
Streamed it for some friends tonight and it was honestly really fun! The conflict system can be a little slow but it's so satisfying to 'outwit' the AI's logic and to hit them with the info that you have and break through.
I'm invested in the story and will stream more of it, but genuinely a fun experience so far!
Found this game through SAGE 2023
Interesting Story overall, it definitely got me interested, however it got slightly confusing around when Irene was explaining some points.
Gameplay wise, it definitely has a pretty fun type of strategy when it comes of risking points to get more or defend another set. Even though that certain enemies are a tiny bit unfair when it comes to gaining points and shooting you down for most of it.
If theres any *real* complaint about anything, it would be the effect on one of the big cards, especially about the effect of being able to use 2 actions per turn. It kinda makes the whole risk of trying to use it to backfire heavily as it also affects the opponents.
Absolutely would love to see more on it otherwise!
Good feedback! Top of my list of gameplay improvements for the next major update is to "mellow out" the opponent AI a little bit, to reduce that unfairness and increase how in-control the player feels, so consider that totally noted.
As for Pace Up (the resonance effect on the big card "Clockwork"), I also agree it's a skosh problematic at the moment. It's possible that mechanics which show up in future chapters may help dial-back how off-the-rails it feels, but if not, it may need a rework. I'm thinking of either "localizing" the Pace Up effect for each debate participant such that it functions more like a Haste status in a more traditional JRPG, or perhaps decoupling the debate pace and acceptance rate mechanics somehow, so that only the "activating" player gets the "increased acceptance rate" benefit (at least at first). I'm open to suggestions on this one.
Wow! So much fun. I discovered this on Steam by almost complete accident, but what a pleasant surprise! Absolutely loved it, and have my eyes firmly fixed. I want more! Best of luck with development.
Just finished played one time through. I have no idea of the possibility space from the branching dialogues but from what I experienced I think you expertly captured a feeling of consequences to choices and urgency that I don't get from other games. The game genuinely felt like the stakes are high and I had only one chance to make things right, even with the prior knowledge that I could have just saved and loaded the game and reset my mistakes.
The combat is fascinating to me and I think it was a great idea to have 3 effective pools to build from and attack on, which makes it not so trivially optimizable to build a deck around. Combine that with the strongly tied themes of debate behind the deck-based combat and I see a very strong base for a game here. I will eagerly await for further updates!
Played the demo, and I want more! There's just so much I like about the game that it feels like it was made to hit all of what I like about Deckbuilders. This is more for encouragement, but I can't wait to see more, and I'll make sure to share it with others so that they can see this!
- HONEST REVIEW (Edited to reflect Chapter 2) -
PROS
+ A VERY compelling story with well-written characters and mystery.
+ A unique conflict system (you debate opponents instead of fighting them).
+ You have a lot of customization options for making a Debate Deck that matches your tastes.
+ The overworld that feels like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but with more fantasy and less Mario.
+ Lots of interactable objects in the environment.
+ Catchy music (I personally love Distant Warmth, Jazzy Idealist, and the new Rival Theory).
+ The finale of Chapter 1 is JUICY. (It is dramatic and scary, but will make you more determined than ever to solve the mystery.)
+ Chapter 2 explains a lot of lore about the world and involves an academic mystery.
+ There is a "countdown" to finish each chapter (5 days), so you want to choose which missions you want to finish before the 5 days are up. CHOOSE WISELY!
+ There are lots of references to real-world rhetoric/philosophy (Perfect for nerds like me!)
CONS
- When the game first released the combat (ie. debate) was slow, but the latest update seems to have improve the combat! It now feels faster paced.
- Terminologies can be confusing (I tend to think about combat in terms of Energy Points and Damage, instead of Premises and Resonance.)
Conclusion:
A fun and exciting turn-based strategy game, with lots of dialogue and lovable characters. It has very few issues and is well worth playing.
Have been enjoying it so far, but stuck the first time I've got to Justice square, I think I'm meant to talk to a lone guard, but can't find one other than this guy who doesn't really interact.
A potentially easy fix could be preventing skipping ahead when its an end of line [v] if you press a button within something like .2s of it appearing. Or an option to speed up text animation
Thanks very much for the feedback. You can find the guard down the alleyway as pictured here. Might have made him a little *too* out of sight, heh heh...
Gonna totally figure out a better way to prevent accidental text skipping, but for the time being, if you miss the last little bit of text, you can press tab (or L3) to view the text backlog. Should alleviate some of the annoyance!
Thanks :D
Yeah, may make sense to put him a bit more visible, like here.
until now the game's basically taught me that you can't go into areas that are off the main path, so I didn't even see the gap in the fence
Nice about the L3. could be good to mention that early (maybe i just missed it lol)
ah, errored trying to edit the deck (god isn't making games annoying)
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_deckEditor:
Unable to find instance for object index -4
at gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_obj_deckEditor_Create_0_28543_gml_Object_obj_deckEditor_Create_0
############################################################################################
gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_obj_deckEditor_Create_0_28543_gml_Object_obj_deckEditor_Create_0 (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_deckEditor_Step_0
Do you have any more details? (For instance, where the crash occurred?)
Depending on several factors, you may be able to bypass this error if you reload.
it was talking to the guy you pointed out, then going into the deck to edit, going out, going in again, clicking around a few times (i was a bit unsure what to change)
i'll try again when i'm next free to game
Hey, fair enough, I'll see if I can reproduce it. Thanks for the tip!
EDIT: I have managed to reproduce the error. I'll add a fix for this issue as well as some of the others you mentioned here in the next update. For now though, for yourself and those who might be reading, if you've got a card "grabbed" while in the deck editor, DON'T back out of the editor! Drop the card first!
EDIT 2: Should be fixed as of version 2. I also went ahead and addressed the other two things you mentioned (accidental text skipping and finding the isolated guard). See Patch Notes #1.
Game is good. Writing is charming and easily digestible. Game length is less than 5 hours currently, but is a great basis for future content.
(disclaimer-- had the pleasure of playtesting the beta for this game)
Reality Layer Zero is a fascinating blend of mystery visual novel storytelling, adventure game exploration, and unique, debate-themed card RPG gameplay.
Overall, everything in the game is super well made, and the story, music and art direction all do a great job at complementing one another. There's obviously been a lot of time spent tuning the card gameplay to make it have a satisfying flow. In the first layer that's available, combat never felt unfair, and it was often extremely satisfying. At first it can seem a bit daunting, but, even as someone who doesn't really play a lot of card RPGs, I found that I was able to conjure up and execute some fun strategies by my second hour of play. And on a second playthrough, I was able to come up with and execute some really fun strats to take down the harder debates more effectively.
The atmosphere of the story is very distinct, and the mystery setup within it is so juicy-- I'm dying for some answers (but I can wait patiently!) The writing is also very strong, which is great, given how a good deal of the game is spent reading. The first layer does a great job at establishing the brooding, uneasy tone of the town, while also allowing for some occasional moments of wit and humor, and, of course, lots of intrigue and setup of deeper things to come. I also appreciate the inclusion of a backlog, as well as the ability to save and quit mid-dialogue so you don't have to wait for gameplay sequences if you have to go somewhere.
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes mystery VNs or adventure games like 07th Expansion works or Ace Attorney. And if you like RPGs that go for a unique style of combat, the systems here offer some leeway to play around with various builds in just the first layer.
Most special shout outs go to the expressive spritework, memorable CGs and fantastic music! Again, I'm stoked to see more in the world of Reality Layer Zero in the future!