Thanks for your feedback, everyone! Sorry my response is a little late, I took a small vacation.
Steam curates their games based on wishlists, yes. Meaning the more wishlists a game gets, the more visibility Steam will give it.
Thanks. The victory paths don’t really start developing until the second half of the game. There are several ways to win and lose with each faction, and from my playtests it feels fairly easy to choose a faction and even change your mind before the end of the game.
The different factions are mainly represented by the characters in the game. By getting to know each character, you can understand why they support their faction. Each faction also has leaders which you can do missions and tasks for to understand more. Beyond that, I tried to include the factions in the makeup of the city. Magetown has its own architectural style which includes the classic architecture of the nobility, and magic is always used instead of slipflame there. The hunters are present in the more modern slipflame improvements added onto buildings, and the people live in the older sandstone homes of the city and they have a strong food culture. I’m always trying to add to these descriptions, so I’ll keep your feedback in mind.
The Riverside vs Phoenix rivalry isn’t the main faction split, but it has a full arc through Xiaoxi. The conclusion isn’t obvious though, it’s something you’ll have to uncover through your choices. I might develop this rivalry a bit more because of your feedback. The Wu thing is now mentioned in all the paths of that chapter, but I only recently changed it so you might have read a different version before.
As for the trials, I know what you mean but I don’t think it’s possible to make it any easier. There just aren’t very many stats to test this early in the game. Victory in the trial requires choosing exactly the right choices, but it is very possible.
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, making a save function is out of my hands. It’s not Choice of Games style to use saves. It’s also CoG style to use fairmath increases on stats, meaning each stat gain adds for example 10% to the total instead of 10 points. You’re right that this means there are diminishing returns on stat gains, but this is a common practice for RPGs - the stronger you get, the harder it is to reach the next level. Aside from that, there are no stat losses in the game except for Slipflame Level and Rank. Slipflame Level doesn’t decrease by percentage, and it replenishes by 6 points every chapter. Rank is only reduced in rare plot situations, and likewise it is measured in whole points instead of percentages so there are no big swings with these two stats. As for the opposed stats like Intellectual/Adventurous, adding points to one does subtract from the other, but both are useful and I haven’t added any choices where they are penalized. In other words, the best way to increase a stat is by trying to use it.
The one exception to all this is romance stats. You can get losses on these stats by choosing incorrectly, and they are done in percentages. But I think this serves an important narrative purpose. Personal relationships often involve large swings of opinion - if you do something to make a character mad, you can easily swing out of their favor. The reasons for these feelings also tell you about the character and their opinions of the world. Pleasing them might involve betraying the faction you support, and to me that’s an interesting dilemma.