There is a lot of juice going on here. Attacking feels pretty good, pretty heavy but still controllable. The biggest complain that I have has already been said, the enemies hardly ever get to come near me to attack and I had no idea what was happening during the item and skill buying section. I accidentally bought lots of stuff without really thinking about it and it didn't really feel like it made any difference.
I'll refer to your game as Tomato Juice because not only it feels very juicy but it also looks like tomato juice with all that blood being thrown around.
Jokes aside, I don't really have anything to add to what the others said, I've had a pretty similar experience. Blocking is kinda weird too, I didn't really manage to use it (I'm not saying it's broken, I'm just referring to the fact the time frame for it is kinda short).
Yeah, it's harder to use than I intended. Objectively, it has a longer window and a shorter recovery than fast-rolls in Dark Souls, so it's a powerful tool. The problem is most people just press it too early and don't realize they're hit in the "not guarding, but you can cancel into anything" phase. I'm hoping a clearer animation and players learning enemy attacks better will fix that up, because blocking is fun when it's working
The enemies are not a problem unless they have the ranged attack (and maybe the winged ones), you just spam attack and nothing can really approach you.
>The enemies are not a problem unless they have the ranged attack (and maybe the winged ones)
This is completely by design, those enemies are supposed to be "filler" that make dealing with the real threats harder. The "threats" force you to block or dodge around their attack. I think the problem with this version, and why people were calling it easy, is that I wait until Layer 3 to introduce the threats into the spawn pool.
I already made the first Layer harder, and I'm going to add tanky bosses you can't stunlock to introduce the importance of blocking/dodging early on.
Thanks for the feedback, difficulty balance would be impossible without it
Great additions on this one, I think I said it before but I love the new sword swinging animation, it really makes the sword feel heavy. The item and skill system is really nice, but having everything look like swords is a little bit confusing. I assume those are placeholders, though. I think blood should be a little darker, it looks to pink to me and blends too much with the reddish backgrounds, like the one at the tutorial. I really like how much this grows on each Demo Day. Good job!
This was pretty flat, the gif shows some sick moves, but i got throug a couple of layers just spamming your basic attack (and getting Stylish rankings too), i can't put my finger on it, enemies are pretty docile, with the exception of those angel rainbow cube things, and the arenas are too small to get you to try a different approach, since the enemies keep coming from all sides.
Maybe crude graphics instead of placeholder cubes would make it read better.
This has come a long way since DD9(10?). I love the feel of not-guts and how enemies react to it (a bit too much screenshake thought), though i wish the enemies had a similar weight to them. Some of the controls also seem a little consistent too, dash canceling seemed finicky and I couldn't figure out if those hot 3rd strike parries were just tap forward or not.
Overall, besides the usual 'needs art' I quite like it, it's almost like the PS2 Berserk game translated into 2d. It could maybe use a splash of DMC, something like alternate weapons and big boss fights.
Edit: First run stats, if you need em for statistics.
Somehow it always struck me that the protagonist dude would look like Guts from Berserk. It's a really badass game, but when I purchase a new skill I don't notice anything different with my moveset. Is it still being developed or am I just stupid?
Once you've equipped an ability to a slot, it works like special attacks in Smash Bros, but they cost a lot of stamina. The other items are always working, but you might have to experiment to find out what they do.
When I asked my artist friend for concept art, I asked him for a legally distinct Guts, so you're right on the money
Comments
There is a lot of juice going on here. Attacking feels pretty good, pretty heavy but still controllable. The biggest complain that I have has already been said, the enemies hardly ever get to come near me to attack and I had no idea what was happening during the item and skill buying section. I accidentally bought lots of stuff without really thinking about it and it didn't really feel like it made any difference.
Still, combat feels nice. Keep it up!
I'll refer to your game as Tomato Juice because not only it feels very juicy but it also looks like tomato juice with all that blood being thrown around.
Jokes aside, I don't really have anything to add to what the others said, I've had a pretty similar experience. Blocking is kinda weird too, I didn't really manage to use it (I'm not saying it's broken, I'm just referring to the fact the time frame for it is kinda short).
>Blocking is kinda weird too
Yeah, it's harder to use than I intended. Objectively, it has a longer window and a shorter recovery than fast-rolls in Dark Souls, so it's a powerful tool. The problem is most people just press it too early and don't realize they're hit in the "not guarding, but you can cancel into anything" phase. I'm hoping a clearer animation and players learning enemy attacks better will fix that up, because blocking is fun when it's working
The enemies are not a problem unless they have the ranged attack (and maybe the winged ones), you just spam attack and nothing can really approach you.
>The enemies are not a problem unless they have the ranged attack (and maybe the winged ones)
This is completely by design, those enemies are supposed to be "filler" that make dealing with the real threats harder. The "threats" force you to block or dodge around their attack. I think the problem with this version, and why people were calling it easy, is that I wait until Layer 3 to introduce the threats into the spawn pool.
I already made the first Layer harder, and I'm going to add tanky bosses you can't stunlock to introduce the importance of blocking/dodging early on.
Thanks for the feedback, difficulty balance would be impossible without it
Great additions on this one, I think I said it before but I love the new sword swinging animation, it really makes the sword feel heavy. The item and skill system is really nice, but having everything look like swords is a little bit confusing. I assume those are placeholders, though.
I think blood should be a little darker, it looks to pink to me and blends too much with the reddish backgrounds, like the one at the tutorial.
I really like how much this grows on each Demo Day. Good job!
This was pretty flat, the gif shows some sick moves, but i got throug a couple of layers just spamming your basic attack (and getting Stylish rankings too), i can't put my finger on it, enemies are pretty docile, with the exception of those angel rainbow cube things, and the arenas are too small to get you to try a different approach, since the enemies keep coming from all sides.
Maybe crude graphics instead of placeholder cubes would make it read better.
This has come a long way since DD9(10?). I love the feel of not-guts and how enemies react to it (a bit too much screenshake thought), though i wish the enemies had a similar weight to them. Some of the controls also seem a little consistent too, dash canceling seemed finicky and I couldn't figure out if those hot 3rd strike parries were just tap forward or not.
Overall, besides the usual 'needs art' I quite like it, it's almost like the PS2 Berserk game translated into 2d. It could maybe use a splash of DMC, something like alternate weapons and big boss fights.
Edit: First run stats, if you need em for statistics.
Made a video of me playing it with my critique in the description
Somehow it always struck me that the protagonist dude would look like Guts from Berserk. It's a really badass game, but when I purchase a new skill I don't notice anything different with my moveset. Is it still being developed or am I just stupid?
Once you've equipped an ability to a slot, it works like special attacks in Smash Bros, but they cost a lot of stamina. The other items are always working, but you might have to experiment to find out what they do.
When I asked my artist friend for concept art, I asked him for a legally distinct Guts, so you're right on the money
Thanks a bunch for the feedback
Can't wait to see him fully animated
funny!