Wow! I love how beautifully everything is animated! The boss fight was really challenging, and their moves were well-telegraphed. I really struggled in phase 2, but I can see what you're attempting to have me do as a player (I'm just failing at it, hah)

Nice work on making a solid boss fight!

Very cool concept fight. Very difficult concept fight! This boss has a pretty hefty move set and they're all animated beautifully, it was definitely a treat to look at. The attack was satisfying to use, the range and effect just felt good together. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to defeat the boss, he kept killing me in phase 2, so I put the game down for a bit, but I'll go back and try to kick his ass again later!

Some areas where I struggled

1. The feedback on the player being hit wasn't enough for me, I found that I kept checking my health bar in the upper corner to see if I'd been hit or not, and I was never quite certain what the enemy attack hitboxes were because of this.

2. I'm pretty sure I got the hang of avoiding the lightning bolts, but the player's very quick movement and acceleration speed made moving between the bolts a bit finicky which made this attack feel stressful each time even though I understood the mechanics.

3. I think a better telegraph on his long-range dash would have helped with the second phase. I think there might have been a screen shake when the dash started, but it didn't feel very consistent and so I never knew quite when to jump. This paired with not really understanding the attack hit boxes made this particular attack feel very punishing.

Anyway, I'm not one to shy away from a challenging boss fight, and at least the run back to him is short.:D I'll go back in later today and see if I can take him down, but if you have any tips or tricks, I'd love to hear them!

Really like the art, the range of your melee attack, and most of the boss attacks! Really wish I could hold down a button to keep attacking since its sort of a long fight. I've gotten pretty stuck on the electricity wall boss attack, I'm seeing now that you can jump really high if you keep holding down jump but it took many tries to figure that out.

Overall you definitely created a really good foundation for a 2d combat game!

Pretty cool game! As other people have said more feedback when you get hit would be nice, and I also feel like the telegraph for the charge attack in the second phase was really awkward - the boss repeating the animation made it really hard to judge at a glance how close he was to attacking. I also had a bug at one point where after dying and coming back there were still mines present from the previous attempt - only happened once though so I have no idea what caused it. As a whole this was awesome though, was a lot of fun!

Awesome game! +++potential to continue for a full release or as a base for a totally new game set in a certain post-apocalyptic story that I can't probably mention right now under pain of death. :D

Awesome game, love the animations and fighting mechanics. I only wish for more skill, because despite trying for half an hour, i was not able to defeat the enemy :D

Stunning!!!! I would love to see this turned into a full game (maybe for SMVM?), 

you have such a good base to push on. A full game in this style would be  awesome

Absolutely gorgeous game! The art, animations, and effects all look stellar and the bosses attack patterns are very interesting and varied. I would love to see the finished game, as there definitely seem to be a lot of pieces missing from the complete experience. And as others have mentioned, I think adding more player feedback when getting hit and doing damage would go a long way towards making the boss battle feel more achievable.

Cool idea! I'm not good at these intense moments especially with how quick it's thrown at us, but I really like what you have!

I really liked the art and the music. The boss may be a bit tanky, but I think my biggest issue is the lack of feedback given to the player when getting hit. Visual and/or auditory feedback for getting hit is pretty essential to the player's experience, especially in a fast paced game like yours. I had no clue when I was taking damage without constantly shifting my attention to my health. With the fight being so fast paced, it feels very detrimental to the gameplay.

As for the theme, you didn't really specify how you were interpreting the themes, so I'll interpret it lol. I think you did well with the theme because it definitely is missing everything a metroidvania has except a boss battle. Recurring dream fits in the sense that I had to play the fight over and over lol.

All that being said, you should really particpate in the SMVM. It sounds like you had a unfinished level already. And mechanics wise, I felt pretty natural except for the mentioned lack of feedback when getting hit. You could put out a well-polished demo or microvania in the remaining time you have.

Congrats on submitting! 

Really nice entry, feels like a demo of a released game. Managed to beat the boss and it was fairly challenging. Everything works fine together, from art to controls, to music. Great job!