FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Onkalo

Onkalo

By Star Chicken, chronicpain, Shirac, Xenachos and nGryyyyy

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2543.7746
Fun5523.2046
Innovation3853.3244
Theme3253.8646
Graphics254.6346
Audio684.0744
Humor4102.8640
Mood344.3446

Comments

frag-machine 2025-04-08 07:07

I really like the idea for the refilling gauge combat system, pretty cool! The art is inspired, music is very relaxing yet a little eery, overall a very moody experience!

toupaks 2025-04-08 10:37

This is just beautiful !! Amazing art, and I didnt expect the combat system in the middle of the narrative, it was a nice surprise. Music is also very fitting. Amazing work !

madelinef 2025-04-08 14:23

Beautiful art, and original combat system. The drawings are really beautiful and give a immersive mood.

follusior 2025-04-08 14:25

A wonderful novel, great graphics. Why on unity?) And I would like a lot of sounds. The game is cool, I like it.

agraffs 2025-04-08 19:17

The art for your game is so good I don't event have the words. The visual novel was nice... But the graphics are just perfect ! GG !

senkoso 2025-04-08 19:22

I really liked the art, it's a really cool novel 💗

tailchaser 2025-04-08 19:29

The artstyle is amazing and reminds me of linocut! Loved the writing and narrative, and the time-limit and combat choices were nice addition to this novel. Great job!

pro4 2025-04-08 19:39

I was able to get to an ending (bad end?), but not sure if there were multiple endings. I played through a second time going a different route to see if there was something different, but I got the same ending again.

Really liked the mysterious story and beautiful artwork! Definitely pulled me in a lot and I was very curious about the world and area you were exploring.

ten10gu 2025-04-09 00:36

Gorgeous artstyle, and the story had me engrossed throughout. The addition of an ATB-style combat system was super surprising, and the execution was pretty damn good.

toilari 2025-04-09 17:52

Gorgeous visual novel! I encountered a few situations where I had bugged dialogue (some dialogue I had earlier seemed to pop up again later on in places where it didn't make as much sense) and a few cases where the dialogue box stayed blank, but no game-breaking issues whatsoever. Great work nonetheless! <3

mayrakissa 2025-04-09 17:57

Fantastic visuals and storytelling. Cat all the way!

vegasword 2025-04-09 21:08

Artwork looks nice but the storyline isn't very engaging, and the combat even less so imo.

ecmjohnson 2025-04-10 00:14

Fantastic art style! I was impressed how the cat affected my playthrough and it made me think how the options at the start would affect the story. I found the atmosphere really strong. The ominous foreshadowing when entering worked well as a hook, but I do wish there would have been a bit more in the text to invest me into the story. Overall really well done!

norah 2025-04-10 00:45

The atmosphere of the game is really great, it was creepy and mysterious. The visuals are also beautiful, I really enjoyed playing your game, nice work !! :clap:

baldurs 2025-04-10 05:06

This is the first time I have seen this artstyle in a game. Using this as a base for a larger game would go great.

nicholas-smart 2025-04-10 06:37

Love the art style. Only issue i had with the game is how fast the dialogue was being printed out on screen. It felt a bit slow but I know you can just pass through dialogue but it feels more fun reading as it prints out.

verttixpertti 2025-04-10 06:47

Such a cool artstyle. Impressive game for just 3 days.

shamedoor 2025-04-10 07:59

Even though I'm not a fan of the visual novel genre, I had to check out this game since I loved the visuals! They reminded me of the masterpiece Obra Dinn <3

buni 2025-04-10 16:46

Great art style and I really like the atmosphere of the game - well done :)

tenzz 2025-04-10 16:58

Is it even legal to be this cool?

pythorogus 2025-04-10 17:22

5/5 there is a cat

antonin-granados 2025-04-10 17:38

The art and sound design are incredible. I am not much of a visual novel or rpg guy, but this was very interesting.

silkworm-sweatshop 2025-04-10 18:08

Really striking art style and moody atmosphere. Having rpg battles is an interesting idea although in its current form it lacks a bit of depth (not surprising for a jam). I'm sure it could be worked on further with more time though.

sam-gorman 2025-04-10 19:00

The art is really stunning in this game - visually striking and builds the atmosphere really well. I liked the mystery of the story too, although the ending I got didn't reveal any of the answers, and it seemed like a bad ending. Ambiguous endings are often great, but I felt a little unsatisfied with this one. All I got was that there was some sort of cult protecting a magic crystal, but I still don't know why that matters.

Since there were a few choices, I wonder if there are multiple endings, or if the choices just change the way you get there. (For example, I chose the cat at the start, which found me a coin that helped me escape the trap. I wonder if another item would have just helped me in a different way.) I also got some items like the golden dagger I never used.

I would've liked if I had a little more agency, and if the game was more clear about how my choices were affecting the story. I could kind of tell that my choices weren't too important, because things like the cat were dropped from the story later on. The battle system that popped up a few times was also pretty barebones, although I did manage to die once because I didn't realize it was real-time.

In any case, this is very impressive for one weekend. I thought the atmosphere was really well done, good work!

sirblazealot 2025-04-10 19:33

Really good! I loved the art style and the story kept me engaged right until the end!

kukaracila215 2025-04-10 19:33

This might just be the best thing I've seen during one of these so far. Amazing work, stunning visual, great writing!

apt-prose7 2025-04-11 01:39

The artist did a great job. Very beautiful style.

rushikesh 2025-04-11 07:56

I thought it was pretty good, but it wasn't really fun for people who like more gameplay however it is a novel with a really unique idea

duke-ua 2025-04-11 08:07

Visual novels aren't usually my thing gameplay-wise, but I’ve got to say I really liked the visual presentation here. The art has a strong mood and style that fits the tone of the story well.

lev-ramburg 2025-04-11 14:10

This look is so unique, kinda minimal but still super expressive! a super cool art style, but adding an outline or some extra contrast around objects might help them pop a bit more))

alex-mironchuk 2025-04-11 14:11

It turned out to be an unrealistically beautiful game, I like it. PS. next time, make typing a little faster)

aldenwitt 2025-04-12 00:46

Wow, cool game. The art is crazy cool, and the writing matches the tone nicely. I agree with Sam above that I'd like to have felt more agency in the game - I don't know if my choices really mattered (except cat -> coin etc). The combat system is really luck based, so that didn't feel super interactive either.

That said, this is a spectacular showing, especially for a game jam. I hope you're all proud of what you've made.

floppynub 2025-04-12 01:07

Wow, absolutely beautiful. The art is incredible, the use of color in particular is top notch. The music is also fantastic, perfect vibes for every moment. I also highly appreciated that I could restart a room if I died in it :P why didn't that one guy want to hug me though :( I wanted a hug :(

Lol I don't have any notes, this was just solid from start to finish, great work, I'd be super proud of this one!

3deimos 2025-04-12 17:09

I liked it even though visual novels are not my cap of tea

nooodle 2025-04-12 21:14

This is really really amazing!! I got super into it, I loved the graphics and atmosphere. I was surprised how interesting the writing was too. It's really nice that there were different choices and they felt fitting too. Honestly liked the simple combat too with the refilling gauges. But yeah what a interesting and beautiful game, great job!!

euler-moises 2025-04-24 16:09

This was the first game I set aside to play and, ironically, it was the last one I played and reviewed at LD57. I set it aside as soon as I saw it because the art really caught my attention, but I waited until I had a little more time to play it, because I'm not very good at reading English and a visual novel...well... has a lot of text.

Speaking of text, the story is very well told. I imagine that all the path choices lead to the end of the game. Luckily, I chose the rope and saved myself from the pool of corpses.

The music is excellent. It completely immersed me in the story. Your Sound Designer/composer is to be congratulated!

I really enjoyed the experience.

Congratulations to the entire team.