Hi there!
I'm one of the 6 judges for this RPG Maker Game Jam 2025. I was one of the 2 judges assigned to your game, and we have been assigned to rate your games according to each metric highlighted on the game's main jam page, and submit these ratings to the organisers, who will then appropriate what happens with that. Please contact them in the Q&A if you have any further questions about the judging process. The judges will work on different time schedules, so even if I may have finished playing your game, the entire process might not be finished as of yet. Many of these reviews I am posting while still judging.
All that aside, I'd like to share my VOD of me playing your game, which contains up to an hour of gameplay, and some final thoughts at the end! Depending on whether I stopped the VOD early or not, it will also contain many of the thoughts that I say to you below, which may cause repetition. So just be aware of that.
I will also attach a review below this VOD. I will not disclose my ratings for each category as of yet, but those will be revealed in due time. Not all judges are required to post a review or VOD to each game, but many will do so even if it's optional, including myself.
Here's the VOD:
Either way, according to jam rules, if I come across a softlock on a required map (which I assumed it was), I had to end my playthrough there and judge based on what I'd already played. Every game's a gift, and I appreciate the time and effort you put into this game, even if you say it's an "April Fools' Joke"... I enjoyed it well enough! But sadly I couldn't get very far through it at all due to that bug. (if it really is one, you never know with games like this!)
The maps were sometimes a mishmash of things, but I could see the inspirations of some nice gameplay here, and surprising, snappy dialogue. It's kinda funny, overall. Even if it was punishing. Reminds me of The Witch's House, a little bit.
Then there's that introduction of that dash power to go through the green gates and specters. That was beyond expectations enough!
But yeah, I couldn't really see if it was going to mature into something more than that, because of the bug. Really sorry about that. You can see my playthrough above and my general experience playing it. Interesting ideas! Thank you so much for making the game <3