I haven't finished this demo, but here are a few thoughts.
Negative first:
- Look into texture groups. If you only take one thing away from this comment, please make it this. The long bouts of freezing that mostly stop after you've been playing for long enough are almost certainly because the game is constantly loading new texture groups. You can tell because they tend to happen whenever a new sprite appears for the first time. They're fairly easy to wrap your head around and will do a lot to make the experience feel 100x smoother.
- Hitboxes and hurtboxes could have a lot more player leniency. There were many, many times when I felt as though my attacks should have connected when they didn't, and many, many times when I felt as though an enemy's attacks shouldn't have connected when they did
- The bullet hell sections are really awkward to control. I've played 2 or 3 of these and haven't found a reason that I would ever need to fire in a direction other than right yet, so having to constantly hold down a trigger button just to face the enemy was cumbersome. Holding down a face button to fire while pressing the opposite face button to dash (while also still holding down the trigger to lock my direction) also felt really unnatural. Besides the fact that I was just awkwardly moving my thumb over so many buttons, I have problems with my wrist that were exacerbated a lot by constantly holding down a trigger and a face button while also managing dashing. If turning needs to be a feature for a later boss, it should be a toggle. If it doesn't, just force Bronto Burt to face right. I'd also say shooting should just be mapped to a trigger button so it's less awkward to move around while doing it.
- It is hard to tell sometimes when I can heal. Changing the color of the meter so it's visible at a glance when you can heal once would be really helpful.
- The second phase of the Moley fight is frustrating. Having a character that attacks low and a character that attacks high and/or in arches means you'll inevitably find yourself in a position where you have to take damage.
- Resetting a boss and dying take an annoying amount of time. This is really noticeable if you're going for the bonuses and will have to leave and return if you get hit more than a few times.
Positives:
- I like that you didn't just go with a lot of traditional boss fights. Even though the gimmicks didn't always land for me, I appreciated the effort to make each fight different.
- It's always fun to get new upgrades and increase your move pool in a game like this.
- It's impressive how many different moves you managed to telegraph in a unique way with very limited sprite sheets.
- It's just generally fun. Pogoing off of a boss feels nice, even if the hitboxes don't always match what you would expect.