This game is cool! I really liked the ambient music and the art. The puzzles were fun and interesting and I liked them a lot, although I didn't really understand the shadow room puzzle because you can just walk through walls as a shadow. I really had a hard time with combat though. Using the explosion attack felt way too punishing especially since it's very short range and uses the same resource as your movement option. Otherwise lining up enemies to be destroyed by a laser wasn't particularly fun, since it felt overly hard, and the lasers fired inconsistently. The boss battle was cool, and I liked it on paper, but I think the third phase was a bit much, since certain attacks like the sword through can hit you without any time to react, and it kind of felt unfair. I did beat the boss, however! I don't know if it's a glitch, but the screen went black afterward. I feel like there should at least be a way to gain more action pips, because running out during the boss fight wasn't particularly fun, and just led to needing to move clockwise around the boss hoping I don't die. I don't mean to be overly critical, because I really like the core idea, puzzles,  music, vibe, and everything else. It's all awesome! I'd love to see where you guys take it in the future!! good job getting your game out there! :D

Congrats on finishing the jam! I got as far as the boss room although I did not defeat the boss.

I feel like the art style for the game was successful as according to the GDD and was nice and clean. The music is really nice when it plays. It would've been nice if there were also SFXs. 

I think there's a lot of potential but I feel like the game is not sure on whether to be a puzzle game or fighting game. So for example, most of the game is about puzzle solving, but the boss battle doesn't require any of this. I don't think there is a problem with having a boss, but I do think that the boss engagement should be reconsidered to be more of a puzzle. I would recommend checking out the boss Bardam from Bardam's Mettle (dungeon) from FF14 as it is a non-combat boss about solving puzzles and dodging (i.e. moving). As it is now I honestly found the boss engagement boring (sorry).

I didn't enjoy the enemies and the turrets. I think using the turrets to destroy walls is cool, but it's rendered moot by the bomb skill. Using turrets to destroy enemies is alright, but it's almost impossible to get the enemies to line up for this and not get hit. I'm not sure if it's an issue with having enemies, turrets or just mixing them together as they are.

I would've liked to see more puzzles and less trying to not die via enemy. I'm not a fan of the 123 for the skills. Because dash was infinite and any press would cancel I was trying to treat dash as a toggle but that didn't work. Sometimes I would accidentally trigger two skills at once - maybe don't allow that. The bomb skill takes too long to go off and you can die while waiting for the animation - I would recommend iframes when it is triggered.

The idea of limited stamina/ability uses was cool. It would be nice if after you clear a room or solve a puzzle that the room stays in the same state. That way backtracking can be sped up. I also think rooms could be a little smaller and doors/interactable elements could have a UI E popup or something similar.

Otherwise great job!

The game lacks some feedback and explanations. It wasn't obvious to me what I could interact with. You could write on your itch page with what you can interact and what it does. It would help newcomers a lot.

I had a hardtime with the dash to cross the first obstacle. I had to release every input except for the '1' key while looking at the right direction. I am not sure if I used it correctly. Making it work while also having a movement key pressed would make it way more intuitive.

It's hard to make the enemies do what you want. I had a clear plan in my mind, but my plan would almost always fail and I had to rely on luck instead.

You could easily add some more juice to the game with some sound effects (on interactable, canons and enemies).

I did not complete the whole game, I stopped at the level where there are a lot of enemies and two cannons (one on each side). I tried multiple times to make the enemy follow me, but I always died to their attack in the doorway. I also tried to use 2 bombs to kill them all, but I did not manage to stack them enough.

Congratulations on making a game ! I had fun trying it :)

Artistically the game is, ON POINT! Cool art, music is super cool. I would personally keep the music going through the transitions instead of fading and restarting. That we I actually get to hear the full track while playing your game. The intro is super cool and immersive with the title going into the game! 

With how good the music was SFX would have been really nice to have! 

I think some of puzzles are actually clever ITO solving from a thinking perspective. However the actual execution from a player perspective was quite frustrating. Your puzzlesfelt difficult because the controls over your character's abilities felt clunky to use. There was always some sort of delay between trying to use an ability and my brain, but because the intrigue of the story/art it made me want to keep playing and struggling. Also, WASD and 123 are not super ergonomic I'd separate those. I had my right hand over my left. Maybe WASD - JKL?

The dash was not intuitive to use. I spent 15 minutes trying to cross the first gap wondering how the heck do I cross it when my dash won't get me there. Only to finally realize oh my dash cancels if I'm pressing a button. This wasn't intuitive because it would dash for a short while before turning off if I was holding a direction. You could possibly mitigate this if you wanted to keep the dash going for a while. Instead of tap and go forever you have two. Tap, and it goes the set amount you have currently OR if it's holding and you go over that set time you do the dash till the dash button is let go. Shadow abilities and explosion abilities were cool, but were still kinda clunky. Especially with trying to handle a room of AI.

I would go back and work on a more responsive and intuitive character controller before expanding. Art and music are great and intriguing keep doing that! There's some cool environmental story elements going on! 

Keep going!

This is a cool idea, and I like the graphics and sfx. I felt a little lost, there was no direction, or any indication of what did what. I just pressed buttons till things worked. Some maps feel too big for the player, but you have a solid base here. Good work!

oooh I see some good potential here. 

SFX: this would have really brought this up a notch. I was particularly confused with the button to move the turret, I wasn't sure what the box was and I pressed e on it but my character was in the way of the line moving so I diddn't visually see it move. Hearing the click of the button - or the turret starting up/rotating would have mitigated this!

Tutorial: totally needed for this - even just text on screen would have helped!

Pacing: Other comments suggest its too slow, but I actually liked the pace. to me it felt like it was setting the mood and tone for the game, but that being said it should feel a little more obvious that you are in a cutscene

Artwork: I actually really enjoyed the art in the game

Will follow and hope to see this updated after the jam! Keep it up!

The idea is great, the art and animation were amazing, and the music fit well!

I feel a tutorial is needed for this game, and with the opening scene having an empty area, I feel this might be a good place to add some tutorials on the controls. I tried going into the game without reading the description (where the controls are) at all, and it was basically impossible to play.

The game feels really slow, the cutscenes and transitions felt really slow, even at the opening cutscene, I thought my game was lagging with how slow it was, perhaps a way to skip it would be great. I spent awhile clicking around for invisible buttons and mashing keys on my keyboard, thinking a “Play” button was gonna pop up before realising it was a cutscene that brought you straight into the game. The transitions from one map to another also felt really slow. The time it takes for the turret to start turning when pressing the lever felt slow as well. While it might be intended, I felt similarly with the animation of the explosion attack. I died a lot of times, and with how slow the screen fades, I felt like I was spending more time in the death animation than playing the game.

The boss was really difficult and felt a little lacking in terms of what you can do to him. It felt like the best way to defeat him was to do nothing but run around, which seemed un-interactive.

Perhaps a line indicator for the turrets like how the enemies have would be great, as I died in the starting area from the first turret destroying the wall, not being able to see that there was even something there preparing to fire. Also, although the line indicators did show they could attack, it felt weird that the enemies were able to attack me through the walls. The turrets also sometimes changed directions while charging up, leading to me running right into a beam.

I liked how the map was designed to let the player learn the game mechanics, such as the cracked wall, gaps etc. The fact that enemies were put behind the cracked wall to let players know that the explosion could kill enemies shows how much detail and thought was done to show players the game mechanics.

I did not think much of the main banner of the game, but the art and music are much better than expected. Especially the boss fight, huge props to the composer.

I really liked the indicators for the game, such as the turret lighting up before firing, as well as the enemy attacks, though I feel more should be added. There is indicators for when the enemy starts an attack, but I feel that another could be added right before the attack actually launches so players can dodge at the last second.

The game is really promising with the current prototype. In fact, with some polish, tweaks and balancing changes, I could see this game being on Steam for more players to enjoy. A really good entry and well done to the whole team!

Such a fantastic entry! The music and art are amazing, they really build the atmosphere and I loved how epic the boss fight music was, and the way it all faded to black at the end was suitably dramatic. It really reminded me of Titan Souls, the expectation of the player to work out what they needed to do without being told, the deaths coming quickly and easily, and the fast-paced resets.

The puzzle designs were cool, I got a bit tangled up in the layout of the main level - I went to the right room first but didn't think to check if I could go any further in, as it seemed to all be walls (oops). I then struggled on the left side 'cause it didn't occur to me to use the shadow to phase through and activate the altar after flipping the levers, so I spent quite a few deaths meticulously clearing out the room (which I can only assume in hindsight is not how you expected players to deal with it, because that was hard). Then I went to the final door, got a bit confused it was still shut, and thought I messed something up so went back to the left side and recleared it (mercy on my poor, dumb soul), before twigging that I must have missed something on the right side.

Eventually made it to the boss, which had a super cool sprite and awesome animations. I do agree with the other comments that it felt really challenging, and I quickly came to the conclusion that it was just about waiting them out. With the comparison to Titan Souls in mind, I honestly think the difficult might be fine, as it isn't a long fight, but having something more proactive to do as the player might help with the slight feeling of aimlessness? I'm really excited to see how some tweaks might affect that part in particular, as being able to use your other abilities offensively would have been fun options to have. 

Slightly controversially perhaps, based on other comments, but I really liked not having super explicit instructions on how to do things? A lot of the mechanics were tutorialised well through the level design, just sanding off some of the rough edges of the mechanics themselves/including more of the simple parts to give the player the chance to work out what they could do would be great!

Small, miscellaneous thoughts:
I also found that naturally I would hold the directional input after dashing, which would stop the dash after a short distance (just shorter than the first pit aha) which was a bit tricky to coordinate.

I found running out of abilities a bit limiting, unless I missed a way to refresh them in combat (like a certain, late-game someone)? Maybe I was just approaching the game with the wrong mindset, though!

I enjoyed triggering the turrets to fire for both affecting the environment and attacking, although I found the laser hard to hit moving targets with, which led to an awkward stutter-step as I tried to keep enemies nearby to line the shot up again. Also, the enemy lasers being able to hit you through walls felt mean, makes sense for the turrets but the lil' guys.

I'm glad I persevered through the walls I hit, though, it was really fun to explore and all of the central mechanics you laid down were really well thought-out and I can really see how you'd build upon them.

This turned into a really long comment! This is a really good entry, I enjoyed getting to the end of it, and considering it was your team's first entry it is absolutely mind-blowing. Well done to you all!

I liked the game. The art really has that Undertale/Earthbound to it and the ethereal music is pretty cool! (plus the final boss music is sick! definetly a highlight of the whole experience.) The level design is pretty nice, but it's not that intuitive. A little feedback on the type of powerup you pick up would be nice as well (just a little text when interacting with the upgrade saying which one it is.) I feel like it's kind of messy that you need the shadow in order to actually be able to reach the switch on the final room to the left hallway, since you don't need the explosion in order to reach the switch in the shadow room. i went left instead of right at first and I ended up getting a bit frustrated that the room was too difficult due to the amount of enemies (shadow solved it no problem). Also, although I think it is a neat little detail, the fact that the shadow pushes my character back whenever it merges back got me killed a couple of times lmao.

The last thing I have to say is that the final boss is a little unforgiving. It would be nice to have a windup animation for some of his attacks so the player could get ready for whatever action he's about to pull off. (The ground explosions are a little too broken, since the windup animation is almost instant and there is no warning on where they are going to spawn.) And I think my bigguest critique is that you really don't let your mechanics made for the abilities shine in the final boss, since you basically just need to avoid him to lelt him consume his own energy until he basically kills himself, so really I just had to run around, and that is a little bit anticlimactic for a final boss fight (especially with such epic music).

That's pretty much what i have to say about it.  Kudos to the whole team and I hope you can expand on the game's lore a bit further, since the characters really seem like they come from an amazing world!

I liked the movement and animation. I think the art was very nice looking. What would give some extra juice to it would be details to some textures here and there, like on floor and the black gap on floor. It was quite hard to understand the mechanics at first and I felt like I needed somekind of indication on what to do. I know there was info on the page but I forgot it immediately (that's my bad sorry)  and I had to check it out again. 

I went through the first scene inside the building and then I didn't know what to do so I got whacked by them bad dudes (that's on me also). There was some nice puzzles - I liked the "calibrating"-the-turret-to-hit-the-destructable-wall -puzzle like a lot! I think this could be very good game after polishing. 

And one big thing that would give your game a huge kick is some nice story premise! :) 

I did not know what I was or what I was there for so I sadly had no clue what the game was about. 

Summary: I liked the game, it had cool art and some art pieces were really great I think! I died many times on the first puzzle (gap on ground) so I'd add some instructions for player. I was not sure about the color-scheme (it needed some cohesion I think) or didn't understand it (could be just me). I hope this doesn't sound too harsh cuz I like the prototype. And if this is your first game, you are absolutely on a great start! Keep up the good work! 

-Munkki

The game is nice, it took me a while to get the controlls but in the end it was worth it! good job on the art and the music too! great vibe and good job~ :3

I really like the mysterious vibe/style. The moves are fun to utilize and solving the rooms with them fun. I could see some really creative level design making this basis for a game really shine.

Backtracking requiring re-solving is a little much - since I went left of the locked door first, I ended up doing the left entry room 4 times while unlocking the left and right control panels, not counting deaths.  A bug I found was pressing 1-3 again while a move was still animating still drains the energy from the extra key presses.

It is a cool boss but quite difficult! the combat mechanics need to be a little tighter IMO. Exploding him resulted in him getting me too often so I adopted just dodging for the main strategy. I think if the explode power briefly stunned him, I'd be way more likely to want to risk engaging him. The environmental pillars were not blocking his ground explosion projectile attack.  Dash/Slash Hitbox seemed to kill me at times I felt I dodged, I'm going to give this boss a few more tries now, wish me luck!