Super cute and well done art and aesthetic! Very simple but satisfying gameplay loop. Was going to complain about lack of variety until the 3rd mission changed things up. Well designed boss fights too, with interesting bullet patterns. Clever height mechanic, though I yearned for an easier way to tell whether the knives were on my height or not. Perhaps a more distinctly different color like the bullets?

Overall, I am super satisfied. Hope to see you next Jam, Great work!

This was a cool game! I liked the atmosphere/setting, gave it a different feel from the standard magical girl game. The overall graphic look was great (the menu in particular was a nice touch!) and the audio fit.

The gameplay was solid overall. I'm glad it wasn't all rescue missions, as those start to get dull... but right as that happened, things switched up! That helped keep me engaged to the end.

I should note, I played the newest version, so I was on the easier difficulty. This felt about right. Most of the game was easy enough to do in one try, but hard enough that it felt challenging to do so. The end boss was a lot harder, took me 5-6 tries to beat. Part of this is that I'm not great at bullet-hell, but part was the floating mechanic. I had a hard time understanding it, and when I finally did, it was still more of a pain than fun to use.

I did try Hell mode... the first level wasn't too bad, but by the second I was seeing why people found it hard, hehe.

As for your specific survey questions:

• How do you feel about the 3d movement/shooting mechanic

I felt the movement and shooting was pretty solid in most of the levels. Knives were a little hard to hit. During the boss fights, I had a really hard time aiming and dodging. This could just be me. Also, as mentioned before, the float mechanic felt more cumbersome than fun.

• If you have to play procedurally generated chapters repeatly, do you feel if it's repeative?

It would depend. If it was the rescue over and over, definitely. If it switched up a lot, it might be fine.

• If it's a local multiplayer game, do you think it's better to keep in one view and it should split to multiple view?

Probably one view, though it would limit the players ability to search separately I guess.

• What elements do you want to add in the game?

A lot could be added (I mean, it's a jam game, I'd expect that!) Power ups, more level variety, objects that are useful (I kept seeing the buckets, but do they do anything?), more enemies, traps, etc.

Overall, this was an excellent game! Great work!

At first I thought the game might get too repetitive with the same gameplay of rescuing students. But in the end, I enjoyed this game thanks to the more interesting boss fights. The visuals are very nice and I liked the story and concept, it definitely stood out to me. As for the questions you asked:

How do you feel about the 3d movement/shooting mechanic?

I got used to it eventually, but throughout the game I found the height of bullets to be unclear.

If you have to play procedurally generated chapters repeatly, do you feel if it's repeative?

I'd say yes, unless you manage to add more variety such as new enemies or stage hazards.

If it's a local multiplayer game, do you think it's better to keep in one view and it should split to multiple view?

I'm not really an expert on multiplayer, but I'd prefer split screen over having the camera locked to one player and have everyone else have to follow that person.

What elements do you want to add in the game?

Stage hazards, more enemies, more types of bullets to dodge, maybe powerups...

Note: I played the initial version, or a version close to it.

I was worried about the difficulty of this game going in. The early videos usually ended in a game over, which given that the author of a game is usually pretty good at their game was a worrying sign. Skimming the comments also showed a few people found the game difficult. I did find the game too difficult, but not necessarily for the reasons I expected.

I have mixed feelings about the core gameplay loop. Mechanically, it's solid, and moving and shooting is tight and satisfying. I wasn't sure what the point of hovering was as the knives seemed to be above ground level and the ghosts seemed to take up the whole height. Carrying a girl weakens you severely, both slowing down your attack and movement, and that's something I'm still not sure about. It makes a lot of sense narratively and mechanically, but you can't outrun the ghosts while carrying or take them out quick enough to avoid being swarmed. Trying to drop the girl, defend, and then pick them up again was too complicated for me and might be pace-killing for others who can at least handle it.

There seems to be little or no bound on enemy spawning. I'd clear a room, come back, and it's full of knives again. I'd run past some ghosts, only to have them just keep spawning and end up swarmed by a dozen of them. I would have preferred more of a respite, being able to clear a room, breathe, and move on, but I think that's not going to be a universal opinion. I also would have preferred more of a difficulty ramp instead of having several enemy types thrown at me in the beginning at a pretty high rate, but again, I think that's going to be a bit divisive.

I can't comment on the boss fights as I didn't get that far. Yeah, I had that much trouble.

In other words, the game forces you to stand and fight (hey, isn't that one of the themes?) and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The combat, while solid enough and not bad, wasn't enjoyable enough to make me want to engage in more of it rather than just survive and get through the level.

It really needs a map, or some sort of objective markers. It was hard to tell where I was and where I needed to go, and given how deadly the environment is, this is literally the difference between life and death. You can't really afford to explore because everything is trying to kill you.

With that out of the way, the visual design is fantastic. It's got a somewhat oldschool feel, but in a nice throwback indie game way rather than a "this is all we can manage sorry" way. The mix of normally lit environments with cel-shaded characters works great. Little touches like the animations in the dialogue and fancy main menu complete the impression.

The music is good, especially the main menu background music, but the sound design is a bit of a letdown otherwise. The dialogue skip sound is a baffling choice entirely, and the hit sound sounds like a door being slammed and there's something really weird with the positioning or stereo imaging of it. It's not horrendous by any means but it contrasts pretty sharply with the fantastic visual presentation.

I will also note that while I found the setting and premise fascinating, there's a lot that went over my head. In particular I have no idea why Song is throwing cards as an attack. To my entirely Western educated mind that seemed a complete non-sequitur.

Finally, I'll try my best to answer the specific questions you're looking for feedback on.

How do you feel about the 3d movement/shooting mechanic?

See my comments above. It's solid and well-implemented, but doesn't stand out on its own.

EDIT: After reading some other comments I realized this question refers to something completely different which I never really experienced ingame.

If you have to play procedurally generated chapters repeatly, do you feel if it's repeative?

I didn't actually realize this game was procedurally generated at first. I think it's fine but will eventually wear out its welcome.

If it's a local multiplayer game, do you think it's better to keep in one view and it should split to multiple view?

I think it would have to be multiple views. One view would be better for this type of game, but unless players are locked into a room or limited by some sort of tether they can separate across the map. That means zooming out really far to keep them both in view, which means they'll be almost impossible to see given the size of the maps.

What elements do you want to add in the game?

I could list a lot of things, but I think in the end I want a very different game from the original vision. In general I'd like it to be more forgiving, but I'm not sure if that's the right direction to take this game.

Overall I think this is pretty good game with a few minor flaws, mostly to do with the audio. I think the gameplay is going to be divisive, though, and it just wasn't to my tastes.

First thing I want to say is this game is very difficult. Very difficult. In some ways this is good; I love hard games. But this game is also the other kind of difficult, which leads to frustration. So let me tell you what I think of this game. This is intended for the creator of the game, so spoilers ahead.

Presentation

The music is great and fits great with the themes and aesthetic of the game. Visually, this game is beautiful and totally aesthetic. The characters are very well done. The title screen, environments and even the chapter titles are incredibly stylish. Not to mention it's a 3D game, which is even more impressive for a game jam. Making a graphically ambitious game often means sacrificing some readability and gameplay, but this is mostly not the case with good contrast and colors used for the important elements. I'll elaborate on this later...

Dungeons

The basic idea is that you have to explore a procedurally generated dungeon, completing objectives such as rescuing lost and terrified schoolgirls, all while dodging a barrage of knives and running from ghosts. The enemies are really relentless. They keep spawning all the time, so you have to constantly move and shoot. If you are carrying a girl, your movement and firing speed is slower, so that's another thing you have to manage. Right off the bat, it feels like you picked the hardest difficulty in the menu (not "Hard", the one that's usually below it). But no, this is the default difficulty. I'm pretty sure most people would not a game this hard, but I found it pretty fun. Overall the movement speed feels a little slow though.

I'm not a big fan of procedural generation. But in this case it works well, because the game is designed around it (exploration, hide and seek mechanics). No complaints there.

The ghosts can move through walls, which is something you have to play around. Sadly this also means you can get hit unprepared if you're standing too close to a wall. That's not fun.

Boss fights

The boss fights are where I feel the enjoyable difficulty starts turning more into frustration. I'll start with the biggest problem: The high bullets. When you have to dodge bullets that are higher than ground level, the "2D" shooter turns into a 3D shooter. You can no longer use intuition to dodge the bullets, and how you have to dodge them changes depending on the perspective and relative positions. I got hit too many times by these, and it didn't feel fair. Because it has similar boss fights, I'll tell you how Nier:Automata does it better. In Nier, you have a full 3rd person camera, which lets you adjust your perspective to understand where the bullets are. The bullets are also much larger and move slower in general. I don't know if this type of gameplay can be done right in a fixed perspective 3D game, but right now the high bullets are a big problem.

Another problem is how hard it is to hit the boss. Since the player has to aim with the mouse, it would be fair to give more leniency with how accurately you have to aim.

Yes, I did ragequit on the final boss. Like the rest of the game, the difficulty is cranked all the way, but there are also the aforementioned high bullets, and a few times where a bullet can spawn inside you, giving you no time to react. Every time you die you have to walk the same path again. That's too much. I'll try it again before giving my final rating. (Edit: I beat it!)

Verdict

It's brutally difficult, but it's also fun, polished, and well paced for the most part. With some fixes to the difficulty, this game could really stand apart.

Finally, you wanted me to answer some questions.

How do you feel about the 3d movement/shooting mechanic?

It's good overall, but lacks the precision of 2D and has a few major issues. See above.

If you have to play procedurally generated chapters repeatly, do you feel if it's repeative?

See above.

If it's a local multiplayer game, do you think it's better to keep in one view and it should split to multiple view?

Local multiplayer would be nice, but I would improve the gameplay and add more content first. I'd probably prefer splitscreen, that way you can have more freedom and collaboration between players.

What elements do you want to add in the game?

It already feels like a complete game, so I would focus on improving the elements that are already there.

Cheers!

Pretty good, especially in terms of presentation. but I think there's a few small issues that kind of could do with a bit of polish.

a) I don't mind the escort-student gameplay too much but as others have mentioned it could use either a minimap or an arrow pointing back to the safe zone. I can't say that it's very fun in and of itself though, especially when it is most of the game.

b) You can't get health back as far as I could tell, so it was pretty rough even to get hit at all, especially when you don't get full HP for the boss battles. Having to redo the whole escort section especially for Chapter 2 again if you get destroyed from the boss was kind of a pain. (Yes, I know this is ironic since my game doesn't have checkpoints yet).

c) It took me a while to work out the height mechanics; I don't think they're very clear without being explicitly explained, and I don't think the visual differences between projectiles is clear either.

d) I think this is sort of a common thing with SHMUP developers but it's very difficult to focus on dodging shots and shooting a small target at the same time, especially with how small the ghost girl's hitbox is.

As a bug, after I quit to the main menu while being in an introductory cutscene and tried to load a new level, I was unable to move WASD after loading (though I could aim and shoot).

Other than that, I really liked it! The Chinese-ness of it was aesthetically appreciated as well; my ma-ma gave me a jade pendant just like the one on the UI screen, and the music used and overall design of the characters really accentuated it all. I also especially liked the camera flourish on the menu when clicking start to begin.

This is excelllent. My main problem, besides the aforementioned lack of upper/lower perspective, is that I'm directionally challenged, and a minimap or directional arrow back to the shield for the rescue missions would have helped me a lot.

Great job.

Quite enjoyable. 

The addition of one height layer add a lot to combat. The only complaint I have on that front is the lack of feedback and tell for when the player character or the enemies are off the ground. 

The music and arts were very good.