FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD58 → Potion for the Final Boss

Potion for the Final Boss

By rol

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4793.4049
Fun4793.2249
Innovation3163.3749
Theme6303.2050
Humor1843.5249
Mood4693.4349

Comments

raylond 2025-10-07 10:27

Fun concept with good prototype which could use more polish, still well done! It can be really funny to play as a healer who waits until the last possible moment to save life of companions and gets blamed for not healing and doing damage instead :D Potion combinations are a great idea as well that can be utilized in a lot of ways with a bigger time window for the implementation. As it is it could definitely use some speed-up of the gameplay, like removal of long notifications between turns and replacing them with damage numbers, for example to see the feedback. Also it was not really clear that there is a turn limit before actually losing because of it. It would be better if there was a turn countdown instead of the static text in top left.

In general - love the idea and the concept, but I don't connect it with the team of the jam, maybe I am missing something, but I just can't see what exactly are we collecting when we actually use potions?

moonblast 2025-10-07 11:41

The concept is quite intriguing—it's not a common RPG setup, which is precisely what makes it interesting. The game mechanics reinforce this aspect, though it would be even better if the turn speed could be sped up.

rol 2025-10-07 16:11

@raylond Thank you for playing my game! I was planning to have better turn based battle experiement(including the damage numbers you mentioned, and sfx and vfx of attacking and being attacked, more potion types), but got no time in the end. And also didnt have the chance to polish the turns limit system. Might work on these in the near future!

About the theme, the game is about playing as the collector instead of focusing on collecting itself. It is based on my own habit when playing RPG, collecting bunch of items but not willing to use. Don't know if this might be clearer for you to understand.

rol 2025-10-07 16:20

@moonblast thanks for playing the game! I am glad that you like the game concept. And I might polish the game in the future. The game feels slow now cause the turn base system is simple. Hope it might get better with quicker character reaction and better sfx&vfx

temmyt 2025-10-07 19:02

to make a rpg in a jam requires some guts, well done !

fredzero 2025-10-07 19:20

As a potion hoarder myself this is a pretty fun concept and I quite like the potion combo system as well. However the pacing of the game was often slowed to a crawl which greatly reduced enjoyment after a while (mostly caused by the action effect notifications, especially on retries) but overall a great prototype, good job.

zzzkvidi4 2025-10-07 19:27

Nice game, really cool to use rear potion at least in this game :) Concept is interesting, it can be improved by adding additional potion types to create more interesting combinations

Once battle comment from previous battle appeared in the start of new battle, but i'm not really sure in it

Good job!

rol 2025-10-08 10:30

@temmyt thanks! It is indeed hard to make RPG in such short time and I had to give up some features :(

rol 2025-10-08 15:45

@fredzero Thanks! Really glad that you like the game. Yes, now all the reactions are handled by the notification so the pacing does need to be improved. Hope the pacing will be improved once I add more vfx &sfx effects and speed up a bit. Also there will be more potion combinations to bring make it more fun.

rol 2025-10-08 15:50

@zzzkvidi4 Thank you! Happy that you like the concept. I planned to have more potion types(freeze and burn) to bring more fun and strategy but didn't have enough time. I will add them in the future polished version. And there are indeed bugs about the notifications. Sometimes there are too many reactions and they keep showing even the scene is reloaded or switched. I will fix this in the future update.

truedat 2025-10-08 17:53

would have loved to see your own pixel art characters, but programming this is quite hard enuff for this short amount of time! gj

anima-animus049 2025-10-08 18:18

设定和游玩过程都很有趣!作为囤囤鼠很能共情囤一堆药水这种事,关卡设计也很有特点,喜欢!

xparker 2025-10-08 18:27

Good thing that you can throw attack potions on your companions and heal the boss. That is very necessary and a noble deed indeed.

t-c 2025-10-09 04:01

I don't have a lot new to add from what other people said. Love the concept, The humor is spot on, especially with just the idea of hoarding items in RPGs in general. And the notifications did go on a bit too long. But I enjoyed the idea and the ending. I was hoping that you'd get some kind of reward in ealier fights for keeping potions, but I don't know why I was under that impression. I figured it out that it wasn't the case by the 3rd battle :laughing: Well done!

rol 2025-10-09 13:12

@truedat Thanks! I’ve thought about that too, but I’m still new to pixel art and wasn’t sure if I could finish the character in time.

rol 2025-10-09 13:12

@anima-animus049 谢谢!很开心你能喜欢

rol 2025-10-09 13:24

@xparker Haha, I think it will be fun to add reactions of the companions and the boss when they receive potions they don’t expect. Actually, you can even throw attack and heal potions together and the companion will ask "What are you doing?"

rol 2025-10-09 13:28

@t-c I am glad you like the idea! And actually you are right, there was supposed to be a reward for keeping potions. Maybe some extra potions, collectible items or even a special ending. I only got time to show what potions player have used in the review section but it seems I failed to express the idea. I will fix this in the polished version.

iakovboy 2025-10-09 16:42

It's an interesting idea, and the sound is great. Of course, sometimes you want to play the wrong notes, but it's still cool. Good gameplay.

fritzendugan 2025-10-09 16:51

The joke about "are you really sure you wanna use this potion?" had me laughing my ass off at first, but after a while it was really tedious to have to click that everytime. Combined with the fixed speed battles you can't skip the toast text. This game has a lot of humor though! I like how your companion kinda talks shit on you lol. I died on the third guy, feel like I did eveyrhing I could i threw every potion but it still wasn't enough.

Music was really nice. Interesting concept! Well done getting a working game submitted!!

gonulgaye 2025-10-09 17:13

I like!👾✨️

ukulelefury 2025-10-10 03:22

lol, we _do_ always save the good one-time-use items, don't we?? Fun concept! I really like this interpretation of the them. Gameplay-wise, it was a bit text-heavy and involved a lot of waiting for the actions. But I really like the concept!

yuriscat 2025-10-10 11:40

有趣的灵感和设计,很少看到在游戏中扮演奶妈和药剂师的角色的! 提供一些小小建议,药水的交互形式可以从传统的回合制选择改为拖动到敌人/队友身上? 以及如果来点简单的撞击和移动的动画来代表工具可能会让游戏更多汁!但是现在也很不错!您辛苦了喵!

rol 2025-10-10 15:14

@iakovboy Thank you!

@fritzendugan I am glad it made you laugh! Indeed it can be a bit frusrating when you have to click it everytime. I think it will be much better if I made the confirm panels for the each rarity only appear once per each battle so that it keeps the fun but doesn't make player tired. As for the third enemy, yes, it is a tough one and it needs you to figure out its pattern. Really appreaciate that you played through first few levels.

@gonulgaye thanks!

rol 2025-10-10 15:17

@yuriscat 谢谢!拖动这个想法感觉挺有趣的,后续制作会考虑尝试,如果可以将药剂做得更加有辨识度再换上拖动的方式,感觉会沉浸感更强。

rogaro 2025-10-10 17:02

Interesting concept, I liked it, great work. I just felt the battles lacked pace, they end up being too slow.

letmebeme 2025-10-10 17:11

nice cool intro! good music as well. but the wording was very confusing, i didn't get that i was the companion in the beginning. and the confirmation dialog was also quite annoying. also throwing a potion to attack hmmmm well still nice moody gameplay.

wallted 2025-10-10 23:57

I love the consistent premise this game has which is reinforced by funny dialogues and actual mechanic. Very coherent. Great work for a solo dev. Keep going and getting expierence, as this, with some refinement, would easily earn a high spot in voting!

potion_for_the_final_boss.png

schu 2025-10-11 09:13

Nicely done! It's very ambitious which showed a bit in some lacking polish. Solid gameplay overall

rol 2025-10-11 16:30

@rogaro Thank you! Yes, the current pacing is not satisfying. I hope with improvements of presntation and speed of the battle in the polished version, it will feel better.

rol 2025-10-11 16:33

@letmebeme Glad you liked the intro. I will adjust the wording and add a tutorial in the future version to make things clearer.

rol 2025-10-11 16:38

@wallted Thank you for playing and beating the game! I am really glad you enjoyed the dialogues and gameplay.

rol 2025-10-11 16:41

@schu Thank you! It’s my first serious game jam and I misjudged the workload:( Hopefully I will do better next time

okely 2025-10-11 17:54

Quite interesting concept. Simple to understand, but surprisingly deep.

fritzendugan 2025-10-11 18:40

Ahhh, I see so I did see my companion saying stuff but it was a little hard to make sense of the first time. Maybe a combat log instead of toast text would've made it easier to make sense of? I see that they turned red, but I kinda expected them to turn back to normal color when they werent enraged anymore. Either way, interesting twist on the normal jrpg combat system! I was able to beat the game, I tried to beat the final boss without using the panacaea and I was soooo close!!! xD But I guess that's the whole point, to teach the player that you should just use your good potions as soon as you can. Well played !

Screenshot 2025-10-11 at 14.38.25.png

theparticularpixel 2025-10-11 21:55

fun game! i like the idea behind this one. music is quite good and i really like the pixel art! dialogue gave me a laugh. well done!

dazylude 2025-10-12 09:26

A fun and enjoyable experience! I like that you can throw a damaging potion at your companion just because he yaps way too much. Being able to skip text animations would probably improve things a bit, but the slow and steady pace has it's merits too.

Now, I will send this game to my friend who refuses to use any consumables in any game he plays, and will *make* him play through it.

rol 2025-10-12 10:53

@okely Thanks! Glad that you like the concept.

bluedandelion 2025-10-12 13:40

2025-10-12 16 38 30.png Cool game, I love how you can damage your own companion for no reason whatsoever. I would've liked for the game to tell you how many turns are left instead of just having some text at the top.

rol 2025-10-12 14:56

@fritzendugan Thank you for finishing the game! Yes, there's a known bug where sometimes enemy/companion doesn't change back to their original color after switching color. The game wrongly sets the new color as the original one. There is another ending if you beat the boss without using Panacea, but that is quite challenging with current design.

rol 2025-10-12 15:17

@dazylude Haha, thank you! Hope your friend enjoys the game too and maybe he will actually start using consumables.

rol 2025-10-12 15:23

@bluedandelion Thank you for beating the game! Yes, it will be much better to have a hud showing turns remaining to make things clearer. The current simple text is a compromise since I didn't have enough time to add one during the jam.

5757 2025-10-13 15:33

I am very surprised that someone had the courage to try this type of game in a 72-hour competition. It feels like the planning involved is enormous. Achieving such a level in such a short time is really impressive. However, since I don't play this kind of game very often, I was a bit confused at the beginning.

rol 2025-10-13 17:12

@5757 Thank you! I will add a proper tutorial in the future version to help players understand the game more easily

le-don 2025-10-13 23:34

Great game! Really like the concept, but it might be really helpful if there was some kind of battle log. It felt kinda hard to keep up with the battle events. I also got the impression that the enemies were able to heal and attack in one turn, which felt kinda unfair (or I am mistaken, but a log would be helpful to notice this). The shield also seems to be active for one turn, but the shield effect is still visible.

rol 2025-10-14 16:43

@le-don Thank you! Yes, a combat log would help players keep track of what happened. I will consider this in the polished version. And you are right that there are enemies who can both heal and attack in the same turn. It's kind of like in JRPG where the enemy has high speed and they can act twice while the player can only act once, which brings challenge

6knowledge 2025-10-14 17:47

What a nice twist on the retro RPG combat. Didn't quite get to the end by the screenshot's on the page but I think I got the gist of the game. Didn't get to test if the potions could be applied twice because I wanted to throw a shield and a damage, but apparently that would just target the chosen target and you can't apply buffs to enemies (could've been interesting to see that). Simple graphics but there was quite a big lack of atmosphere.

dianavi 2025-10-15 09:00

what an ambitious project ! Well done

rol 2025-10-15 16:08

@6knowledge Thanks! Atually it's possible to apply the shield potion to enemies, though the game currently is kind of lack of reaction so it's not very obvious. I think it will be fun if enemies talk about it when you do that and I will add this to the polished version.

rol 2025-10-15 16:09

@dianavi Thanks!

patuwu 2025-10-15 18:08

First time I see such graphics and the idea though this games, that was new experience for me, interesting concept and I really enjoyed pickled graphics, this is my favorite. Good job!

adam-konig 2025-10-15 18:31

This was pretty fun! Definitely the pacing could be sped up (or at least let me click through dialogs) but the gameplay was quirky and silly and it's a great bit making fun of the potion hoarders out there. It wasn't clear to me whether or not my potions carried between fights or not or if that was just a joke part of the game? But overall great idea and fun game!

diralf 2025-10-16 15:07

You nailed the most painful moment of inventory-based RPGs, I finally actually used potions! :D

The companion’s dialogues makes him feel very alive. Will be good to have a bit clearer visual highlighting of attacks to make it easier to read what's happening in combat.

I also like this asset pack, I’ve used it myself before and even drew a low‑res 8x8 version of this archer :)

archer.PNG

Fun vibe, interesting mechanics with tactical decision‑making, excellent game!

rol 2025-10-16 17:21

@patuwu Thank you!

rol 2025-10-16 17:25

@adam-konig Thanks! For now the potion inventory is pre-designed for each level instead of being carried over between levels, so that it feels more like a puzzle you need to solve.

rol 2025-10-16 17:28

@diralf Thank you! Your art is really cute! Yes, it would look better if I used the animations from the asset pack to show what happened. I will add this to the polished version.

martingonn 2025-10-19 04:25

Couldn't test the game due to being on Linux, but I've given you five stars on graphics and sounds!

xpoho 2025-10-20 14:52

изображение_2025-10-20_215218561.png

I win! Nice little game ^_^

ginger-kyoko 2025-10-20 16:26

Cool game, great visuals and pacing (as for me)! I also like the music. It was pretty fun experience, thx :) I’m also playing through LD entries — check out Madness Bar if you’re into weird/atmospheric stuff 😄

rol 2025-10-20 16:59

@xpoho Thanks for finishing the game!

rol 2025-10-20 17:00

@ginger-kyoko Thanks!I am glad you like the game. Your game is interesting too!

akuta-zehy 2025-10-20 17:31

很不巧玩过类似的好像还是新独游,还在开发中的《你确定要喝这个吗?》,回复可能会比较拿那个做参照了w

其实作为collect的话,玩起来还是有意思的,屯屯鼠这一块的如果用优解解了会比较有成就感,不过看前面回复和实际玩下来没做药水的延续,也还行吧不差

作为jam来说倒是没有做图鉴的必要,但组合一旦多起来让玩家去记会发生什么很头疼,就目前自己试的结果是有降防和额外回血,不知道为什么最后boss标的atk15但基伤20,可能还有不少没探索到的地方;还有一个问题是buff反馈不太明显,可能是显示bug还是怎么样有buff掉了sprite的变色没变这类的

总体玩下来情绪价值还是很不错的,祝好名次

dengyixa 2025-10-21 07:18

轻松愉快的小游戏!!!我喜欢这个!

rol 2025-10-21 16:04

@akuta-zehy 谢谢!你提的这个游戏之前没听说过,刚看了下,药水组合这个玩法确实有点类似,不过那个似乎是他们的核心玩法,我这个是药水组合是战斗中的一环(虽然很不幸因为时间问题这个玩法很多问题,比如你提到的部分),我这个还是比较侧重于结果上来说用更少稀有药水。

rol 2025-10-21 16:04

@dengyixa 谢谢!很高兴你喜欢

ophiene 2025-10-22 00:57

Amazing work! It’s super interesting and has a vert unique way to paraphrase the theme, good job! And welcome to give our game a try! :)

rol 2025-10-22 14:58

@ophiene thanks!

darianifakina 2025-10-23 15:54

Very nice, love it!!!