I’m not a dev but a graphic designer. Sometimes people don't respond positively to your work. I’ve had tons of projects that haven’t gone well that I’ve put a ton of time in, but It’s not a failure if you grow from this.

Yo dude, it's so nice to see your efforts. I just love to see someone talking about something that they love. I'm not a big rpg fan, but i can see a unique charm and you passion oozing from this project. Wish you the best of luck with this and maybe your future endeavors!

You got it right. Your game doesn't stand out at all. I ditched the idea of maning a game in RPG maker because of that exact reason. So I chose Unreal xD. If your gameplay mechanics are good, and your story amazing (I dunno, haven't played it) then maxbe you should try building the game in Unreal? With beautiful 3D graphics? Maybe not? Maybe yes?

Here commenting once more. Your dilemma has been on my mind since yesterday.

I see spending this much time on a project as very risky no matter what.

Bro your game costs $20, it should be $7 max. Just based on art alone. If you want to be apart of the “greats” in the rpg genre you have to be up to their standards. You are competing with many high caliber games liked chained echoes, sea of stars, octopath traveler. You have to step up your quality if you want people to actually play your game.

"The people who did test it loved it and said the writing style was very much you"...as in your friends and family?

Sorry for this comment, but, I think you need to find an identity for the art of the game. It looks like a generic rpg maker game 😢

Don't let it get you down! The lack of attention doesn't mean you're not good enough! RPG maker games are a difficult sell. Maybe try something in a new engine!

Bring on Part 2!

Best to form a team.

To be fair, if you forced Miyamoto to use these assets, he probably couldn't sell an RPG game that takes itself seriously either.

Wait, Nintendo rejected the port? Why? There is a lot of trash in their store, but they reject your game?

word count works against you if you don't know how to write lol