I did it on second run… with rank D! (yeah…)
Interesting use character swap but since boss basically stops blocking after 1st kick, the 2nd character is really used as a support then you just swap back to the blue character. Felt like there could just be a button to kick as in traditional fighting games, since there are not many other changes (just the special effect differs). But I get how 2 characters vs 1 was important to match the narrative.
Really good flow, it felt good to learn to hit as much as possible, dodge at the last moment either back or sideways depending on the type of enemy attack and hit area, esp. dodging the fireball with the right timing (although on my 1st run I just a phase where boss was charging fireball and melee attacks at the same time and it was very disturbing, maybe a bug?).
Not sure how I could optimize to get a better rank, as I pretty much swapped to 2nd character and back to 1st efficiently on my second run. Maybe pick the right character for the most effective special (but the tutorial was a bit fast on the special and didn’t let us try so I didn’t remember which one was better to deal damage vs recover health or something?)
Finally, I was disturbed by the boss phases, apparently both teams got healed? But I lost track of enemy health at some point and couldn’t remember if I was already in 2nd or 3rd phases and at some point it felt like it would never end, then I died (and didn’t have time to check my progression before dying). Maybe some text or animation to indicate we’re moving to next phase would help the player get an idea of where they are, and encourage them as well, telling them it’s not endless.
Anyway, a very good flow and not many deaths, maybe a bit repetitive at times but a solid entry nonetheless.