I'm kinda sitting on the fence about this one. There's definitely a lot about it to like, but there are also some major flaws that really bring it down.

For the most part, the graphics are fantastic. The pixel art is super nice, the characters have great poses and the environments pack tons of detail into the limited space. The lighting and reflection effects add to it, too. And, of course, the transformation sequence the icing on the cake. But- of course there's a but, there's always a but- the blurry font with the weird question mark and some questionable keming were a bit of a letdown.

The music was good. Not standout, but pretty good, fit the game well and did the job. Some of the tracks sounded a bit familiar, but that's neither a good nor bad thing.

I wish the game had more quality of life and UI polish in general. The most annoying thing was the unclear distinction between scrolling and advancing text, and I think I missed some important dialogue (including where to go after meeting the other magical girl) because of it. There were also some parts that really needed instructions that didn't seem to have any- being thrown into the first battle was a shock.

I'm really not a fan of the battles. Strict 4-direction movement seems pretty questionable for a bullet hell, and although I got used to it later I never liked it. The animated backgrounds with tons of lines make it painful and confusing to look at, and the second battle is especially bad because the enemy also has a blur/double effect. I'm not a fan of bullet hells in general, though, and they tend to hurt my eyes anyway, so I'm probably not the best judge here. In short- I didn't like the gameplay, and I didn't think it was a good bullet hell, but I'm far, far from an authority on the matter.

I did find it entertaining that Mahouki's attack has the same rhythm as the Halo 4 battle rifle. 

The narrative is where the game excels and also where it falls the hardest.

I like the story. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't played, but I did like the twist. I'm sure it's been done before, but it's mostly new to me, and it's an interesting concept to explore.

Unfortunately, the writing really brings the game down. For the most part, it's at least understandable, although there are some parts that are complete non sequiturs and a few more that you really have to think about to understand. Because of the awkward dialogue, the emotional beats fail to land, and if there were any jokes they were lost in translation. The initial conversation with the other magical girl was particularly awkward- it sounded like two maybe-enemies being passive-aggressive toward each other.

I don't want to be too harsh, because I can barely write one language and I'm sure the Spanish version is better. But at the end of the day it just didn't click for me.

I do wish the choice at the end was left up to the player, but the game still works without it.

I think a proofreading pass by a fluent English speaker would really benefit the storytelling. Ironing out some of the polish issues and tweaking the combat would help as well. As it stands it's a great concept but the actual execution is a mixed bag.

This game is simple, but there are some things that keep it from being my favorite. For one, I understand that the developer is not a native English speaker, and I was able to understand the story for the most part, but there were some points where things were worded in strange ways that made them hard to understand, and there was one point where the text was not translated at all:

Google Translate helped me figure out what this said. Also, why are the '?' upside-down?

I may have misunderstood the controls, too. I think I'm supposed to press Enter to proceed through the text, and not space bar? There were some points where the dialog cuts off in the middle of the characters' thoughts, and I don't know if that's due to the translation or if I was just pressing the wrong button.

For the gameplay itself, it's alright. I like that the controls are simple and the action is quick. Mahouki's normal and magical girl sprites are cute and lively, very fitting for the jam. The music is pleasant, the sound effects sound good. I also appreciate the tooltips that appear when walking in front of buildings so I know to press down instead of up to enter. The bullet hell segments are forgiving but not too easy either; I died a couple of times during my play session, but was able to win after each death. My biggest criticism is the final battle: the animated background is too busy. I was able to see things fine, but I fear for those who may be overwhelmed by all of the motion and color on the screen.

I have mixed feelings about the way the game is laid out. While it was never difficult to get anywhere and there are few areas, so it's hard to get lost, there also is a lot of empty space that you have to backtrack through and areas that are closed off (I suspect this was due to features being cut due to time constraints). I suggest either trimming the areas down and consolidating the relevant parts to a single area or continue developing the game and fleshing out the locked areas.

In summary, this is a quick, simple game that fits the theme well.  There are some weaknesses (particularly the translation) that hold it back from being the best it can be, but it's a solid beginning. I could even see it being fleshed out into a longer game if the developer desires.

Mahouki Magic feels well done while having good amounts of synergy between the bullet hell gameplay and platforming storyline. The game has a lot of potential in becoming a good short and full release with enough polish. 

Magical Girl Concept: The game features the main protag and two other side characters as magical girls but the side character's magical girl forms are only seen in the itch.io page banner. The design for the main protag, Mahouki feels authentic in her magical girl form and transformation cutscene.

Mechanics: The game's platforming mechanics feels sturdy with no bugs or issue and the movement controls in this section such as jump, interact, skip dialog, and speed up dialog are sufficient enough. The bullet hell section feels good with the rapid burst of bullets having a solid impact on the enemy character while the player character can flip her aim direction automatically, although only horizontally towards the enemy. On the other hand, the bullet hell movement controls could have been better since it feels a little limiting without diagonal movements while there is no continuous fire with the fire button being held down.

Visual: The art style is very well done with good color composition and consideration with the background. The characters are cute and their personality reflect clearly from their design. The animated character in the story and transformation section adds a ton of depth to the game experience and it very smooth from walking to jumping. The attention to detail should be highlighted since the shadows do react to the light source. The transformation cutscene must have taken a lot of effort to make and it was made right for a Magical Girl game. The background art is quite detailed for a pixel art game.

UI: The game doesn't have a main menu or any way to trigger an in-game menu. However the dialog box UI used is plain and simple along with the health bars for the player character and enemy. The yellow bar during the bullet hell segment isn't clearly explained anywhere so I do not know what it does.

Audio: The music is paired with the scenes really nicely and the track selection are all really catchy tunes. The sound effects are limited but are used appropriately in the bullet hell segment. There was a bug where the sound coming from the second enemy came out continuously and did not stop for me until it was defeated.

Theme: The game clearly fulfills the main theme for Magical Girl. The theme the developer picked is about Conservation of Energy. (Spoiler Alert! Start) I feel that the story is only thing that highlights the theme, in which the magical girl uses their life as a source of magic for their attacks without being informed of its consequences, however the theme isn't present in the game mechanics or gameplay at all (Spoiler Alert! End).

Challenge / Engagement: (Spoiler Alert! Start) The story is engaging and it drives the plot of the Magical Girl betraying their magical counterpart which I find compelling and fresh (Spoiler Alert! End). The bullet hell segment is easy to play with very forgiving death, which simply resets the level. The bullet pattern and timed sequences are well made and unique for each enemy. Only drawback is the difficulty in judging the hit box of the character and the bullet. I assumed the large bullets would be a full hit box but it seems some do pass through the character without injury. Another issue is that the character can't aim down/up so hovering above/below the enemy is a big disadvantage when movement space across the level is limited. The boss attack pattern do change up according to the health level which is a plus in any bullet hell genres. Overall the game difficulty is easy for new players to pickup on bullet hell.

Originality / Creativity: The platforming mechanics in the game is quite standard but the bullet hell has some thought put into it. For art and design, it is quite original and there is a good level of creativity put into the story line. The story is a little short and more could have been done about it since I really like the plot and how it flows.

Story: The story quality is good but I feel that the translation from Spanish to English may have muddle it a little. I'm sure in their native language, the dialog and story telling would be superb. It would have been great if the dialog were translated a little better. The story from the start was well written but the explanations about the magical girl powers at the last mid section felt a little off due to the language barrier. I played the game in English (not the developers native language) so my understanding about the story may not reflect the actual content the developers intend to convey.

Overall: The developer obviously knows how to make a decent game jam game with the limited time at hand. I think a lot of the content seem to have been cut out because the side characters both have Magical Girl forms as seen in the page banner while I notice the dialogs is a little rushed. Besides that, I would say the game is complete as a playable game jam however a good chunk of polish to the bullet hell segment, story content, adding save points, and main menu UI can make the game feel a lot fuller as a full game release. If possible the developer should invest some time in polishing up the game so this would become an excellent example of a short and sweet Magical Girl game.

Note: I notice the game requires DirectPlay which I refused to download and install. It seems that I am still able to play the game without this additional component

I really enjoyed the pixel art on this one, in particular the exploration areas were amazing! I lots of cool touches like the reflective water, shadows, and nice parallaxing background! (Though the stars seemed to parallax oddly in some areas) Tons of atmosphere! Adding to that was the excellent music.

The transformation sequence was a great addition! The combat sections were solid, but I they didn't feel quite as good as the exploration sections, in both control and graphics. I believe you are planning to continue developing and polishing, so this is one area that would be nice to see updated! A little more depth to the player's attacks and controls would go a long way to make this section more fun.

The story was neat. Definitely gave me Madoka vibes. The character's matter of fact response to her plight and the "solution" was funny. (I should note, I played in English because I unfortunately can't read Spanish)

All and all, a really good game! And since you're continuing work on it, it can only get even better!

The concept was interesting and I personally  love it, gotta say my favorite part was walking around the little world because the pixelart was beautiful and well done!

One of the things that I would like to note is that you can't exactly know where to go. Well, since the map is tiny it's not really a big issue.

I really liked the music and transformation sequence.  The character design was pretty good too. I would've liked if there were music for the battles because it's pretty jarring going from a transformation sequence with music to a battle without one.