Hi all, especially hi Jayde,
I also wanted to say something about this game. I read most of the posts of Jayde and also his guide, which is by the way very helpful and 99% accurate.
In my opinion manamon is better than Jayde says and also way worse. Here is why:
To end with a positive note I start with the negative stuff. I totally agree with Jayde about the balancing and design stuff. Manamons heart and soul, the battle system, is way to one-dimensional. At least in the normal singleplayer game. Have a strong and speedy manamon and spam the strongest attack and you are fine most of the time. The game mechanics try to open up some nice potential for more variation but it never lives up to that.
Jayde always stresses the point of bad wrighting storywise and in grammar and style. I also very much agree with the first, the story really is the for good reasons unspoken dream of a teenager with no feel for aesthetics, dramaturgy and character design. Sorry for the harsh words, but I really never saw a game story with less credibility and awkwardness on the characterside. It seems to be the developers biggest weakness and he really should consider hiring a writer for his future projects. There is no problem if you can't do everything well, but there is a problem if you try and fail.
He also should have someone check the spelling of his texts. There are some really really weird spelling mistakes all over the place. Typical for a blind person only using screen readers. For example who would write muscles m u s s i l e s? You clearly can hear the correct spelling in the adjective muscular, can't you? And yes, it is unwise from a non-native speaker to point out mistakes in a forreign language. But I am not here to make it better, I am no game dev.
So this is all really no big deal for a small fun project you throw together in your free time. But as VGStorm seems to want to have the reputation of a real game developer there are definitily things to be changed to earn this reputation. Manamon is the most expensive audio game I've ever seen and bought. This price should come with at least some professionalism.
But enough ranting, now the positive aspect:
Manamon is, for some reason, still one of only a hand full of audio games I've had really lots of fun to play. Even with all its flaws it is a game you can sink hours and hours into. It is like McDonalds. Shitty quality but you like it nevertheless. Especially with all the non-existent competitors on the market. If you have no choice, you take the hamburger menu...
So for all the people who. like my, are starving for video games they can play, you really should check out manamon. If you aren't to much into the genre or gaming in general, avoid it like the plague.
P.S.:
I would even buy Manamon 2. Sounds schizophren, I know. But it has to be better than the first one, right?