TRASH PLANET

I had a lot of fun with this!

The restriction on party restores added a cool layer of tension to the stock RPG mechanics. Towards mid- and late-game this wore off some (especially as party members got access to recovery skills) but early-game definitely nailed the vibe of being a pack of unwashed strugglers against a brutal setting. I don't specifically play games for masochism, but stuff like spending my last funds on a revival item and immediately using it after a random encounter because of Posh's paper-thin defenses is a level of strategic miscalculation most story-focused games don't offer. It made me much more inclined to do shitty or degrading things for money/survival than I would in another game (in a good way).

In all the RPGs that have you literally trash-pick items, this is probably the one where it felt the most appropriate and had the most riding on every dumpster check. I appreciated the variety of flavor text in those as well as the check that let me know which I had already searched.

The soundtrack rips, too.

Some spoilers below this point

The central goal didn't seem that important to me but I was invested in the ostensibly secondary "make enough money to live" and "don't let everyone die" objectives and I appreciated that several other party members were with me on those.

While I appreciate the deliberate mechanical screw-yous described above, I felt there was some stuff that surprised me in a worse way - for a game with "few to no full heals" I ended up getting plot-full-healed without warning sometimes after using up some precious recovery items. In other cases, I didn't get an option to go post-dungeon shopping or fully explore an area because I had "completed it" and "had no reason to go back".

The downtime mechanics were a nice touch and helped flesh out the party a lot. There was a little element of "I should pick the right option to maximize the bonuses this'll give me" but I still mostly was making choices on roleplaying instead of character optimization. That said, I felt as though I barely knew some of the later members, and they were forced into flatter arcs due to the brevity of their time in the story. There also felt like less and less of a party dynamic as the characters that knew each other died off and it became a pack of people only connected through Tilda. I liked the variety of combat roles, although I cheaped out on fully equipping and couldn't grind very often so I never got to see some characters or abilities shine. The burn book was a great touch, though, especially the cute little "Likes: Me uwu" notes.

I kind of didn't like what Omen's power brought to the story. Not only did she explicitly or nearly-explicitly spoil every character death past that point save the last, it seems to me to run against the struggle-to-survive-in-hell theme of the story to be able to point to someone and say they're going to die no matter what. I don't mind that conceit in every case and it can work pretty well, I think it just fell flat for me here, especially since it more or less became the core of Phede's and Huppo's arcs from the moment she joined. It also felt a little overemphasized compared to some of the other powers that would ordinarily lean on the plot - Rumor often couldn't get a good read on plot-critical characters, and Guuchi only managed to redo a bad situation once in a way that mattered.

I don't mind MSPaint graphics in general and I think that they complement the atmosphere of the game quite well. The aesthetic swap-outs at the end were a nice way to bring home the impact of the style's crudity/messiness. The overworld sprites were a little weak but I liked the visual character designs and the portraits and battle graphics showcased those well.

I'm not entirely sure but I think the broken glass weapon for Aide might be taking off health even in the fights where he's not in the party - when he rotated in, he often had 1 hp left.

Don't take all of this to mean I didn't like the game! I think it's an excellent production for the scale; this is just the byproduct of my digesting it for a few days since I finished it.

I can see in the soundtrack that there's multiple endings; I think I got the "good" one with two rounds of the final boss and maxed-out relationships for Sloppy, Phede, Omen, and Gucchi, but is there any guide to make sure?

Hey, think I caught a bug. I have both the yellow and blue keys, but it's saying I don't have the blue one.

(Edit) Reloaded that area and it worked the second time around

Great work! This game oozes charm (even the 'bad' art can be pretty charming) and is impressive for a one-person job. 

The world, writing, and especially characters are delightful - much more than I would have thought just looking at the visual presentation and memey-ness. The humor is a nice touch without dragging down the plot/characters and keeps the bleak world from feeling oppressive.

The battle mechanics are enjoyable! While there may be some tension with the lack of easy party restore systems, there are frequent save points and the game overall is not (mechanically, but perhaps emotionally at times) punishing, at least on normal mode. So don't be scared off on that account.

I hope to see more from you in the future, but I know life is busy and appreciate what you've shared. Thank you!

This is the second time I beat this game so… I’m dropping a review.

An interesting mix of LISA, Undertale and other emotional games, Trash Planet reflect about the future of our world and how it will become a hostile place if contamination continues on. There’s this interesting bond system and some tracks are hella good. The length it’s more than decent, it can take more than 10 hours to beat the game and there are several places to discover. The playable characters are all different with their own personality, life story and attacks, but I don’t recommend getting too attached to them.

With some surprises at the end, you will love and suffer while playing this title.

Waiting for TP2 and Hail Vira.

Fullscreen was stretching the game instead of keeping the aspect ratio, so I played around with my NVIDIA control panel settings. To get it not to stretch, I went to Display -> Adjust Desktop Size and Position and I chose Scaling Mode -> Aspect Ratio and Perform scaling on GPU. Might be something to add to the readme if there is one.

I've only played a few minutes but I like the music so far!