The gameplay is fast-paced and engaging, with the thrill of taking on endless waves of enemies. The katana combat feels fluid and satisfying, and the variety of enemies keeps the action fresh. However, it’s hard to tell when my attacks land on enemies. Adding clearer visual feedback, such as hit animations, sound effects, or enemy health bars, would improve the combat experience significantly.  The game’s theme of a lone ninja surviving an eternal onslaught is strong and fits the gameplay loop well. The mix of enemy types adds variety and keeps the player engaged.

The combination of a survival-based beat-'em-up with a top-down perspective and varied enemy designs is both unique and refreshing. The exploratory nature of the level design adds another layer of originality, allowing players to navigate the space while engaging in combat. The controls are responsive. The background music is excellent and complements the fast-paced action, enhancing the intensity. The game successfully creates a sense of urgency and intensity through its endless wave combat and music. The mood is consistent with the survival theme. 

Strengths: Fast-paced and engaging combat with a variety of enemies. Unique top-down perspective adds exploration opportunities uncommon in the genre. Excellent background music that enhances the game’s intensity. Strong replay ability potential with the survival-based gameplay loop.  Blade Eternal is an enjoyable and innovative take on the beat-'em-up genre with its survival mechanics and top-down perspective. The combination of enemy variety, exploration, and satisfying combat shows strong potential. Great work !

I found this game truly fascinating, especially with its unique blend of a semi-open fighting game and a beat-'em-up style. This combination made it stand out from the other entries in the game jam. I really enjoyed the open-world elements and how the increasing number of enemies ramped up the challenge, even though it wasn’t immediately obvious at first.

That said, I felt the game could benefit from more feedback when hitting enemies—adding animations or sound effects would make the combat feel more impactful and satisfying. Additionally, an enemy health bar would be a great addition, giving players clearer insight into the damage they’ve dealt and how much more effort is needed to defeat their opponents.

Overall, the concept is highly engaging, and the foundation is solid. With improvements to the animations, sound design, and certain aspects of gameplay, this game has the potential to be truly exceptional!

This was a fun game!

I liked the openness of the zone, allowing you to move around freely which is very unique in a 2D beat em up. However I felt that for that openness there's got to be a reason to move around, which if there's not collectables (such as in the chests) you aren't really encouraged to move since enemies will come to you.

The enemy designs are varied and have different attacks which I thought was really fun!

I do wish that the text for the introduction and game over screens were more easily visible on the screen. I like the concept of what you had but for instance when I first booted the game it was hard to see the controls and then they went away. I also wish there was a always ticking time in the corner or something because until I died I didn't know there was an end state or what I was trying to get to!

The combat felt fluid and engaging and it was fun trying to get as many enemies on me without getting hit, then mass attacking!

Overall great game, I just had some overall QoL improvements that could make the game more engaging! Great job!

I actually appreciate the mashup of various styles of enemies, it feels unique and original in a way that few other games dare try to emulate for fear of breaking the "norm" and I feel as though that is worth commending. I think this game has an exploration factor that I enjoyed compared to other styles of 2D Beat-Em-Up games, I didn't feel pigeon-holed into the combat to the point where I was unable to check out the level design. Using a somewhat top-down view definitely helped make this possible, good choice there. Excellent background music as well!

That being said, I feel there are some clear areas for improvement. First of all, I'm not sure when the enemies are being hit, if at all. An animation, sound effect, or enemy health bar indicating a successful attack would help a lot. Additionally, the real measure of how well I'm playing the game seems to be the amount of time that I am able to survive the onslaught of enemies, but I don't have any kind of indicator telling me how well I'm doing until I'm already dead! It would be nice to have some stats to keep track of during the game, like enemies slain or (if nothing else) how long I've currently been alive for. Finally, I noticed that at the end of the game when I die, the text on the screen will flip backwards/forwards depending on which direction my character is facing. A small thing really, but on my first play-through I thought the text was always backwards, which left me with a very silly first impression!

All in all: not bad! This game is playable and has multiple things going for it, giving it the potential to become something great if given the chance. :)

I enjoyed playing your game. Great Job!