I agree it’s generally a good idea to make games too easy rather than too hard for jams, it’s just not my cup of tea. you intrigued me with the idea of a genocide run, so I gave it a try. it really emphasized how little variance there is in this game, as now it’s down from three abilities (charm, heal, attack) to two abilities (heal, attack). I don’t mind minimalistic designs, and I gotta say you do a lot with the few mechanics you have, but the balance is way off. it felt even easier on levels 1-3, but Poseidon got me on level 4 — it seemed nigh impossible, which was really cool! for the first time I was forced to use the terrain to my advantage, and actually think about my moves. I had to be strategic and careful, which is what I was initially missing. it took me three tries to finally kill everyone in level 4, and then came level 5 which was completely trivial… it was quite a let-down. in the end I spent most of the time tediously going through the motions without much thought (tbh I had to put on a podcast in the background to stay with it), but I did really enjoy level 4 for what it’s worth.
this time around I also noticed there’s terrain info at the bottom of the screen, I completely missed that the first time I played. there’s a bug though: flying units attacking grounded units on defensive terrain show “Def: 0” but still do -1 damage. grounded units attacking flying enemies on defensive terrain show “Def: 1” but still do full damage. I guess the logic (or UI) for defense on flying units is erroneously applied when they take damage instead of when they deal damage.
anyway, I hope I don’t sound too harsh, I know most jam comments focus on the positive aspects (which this game has plenty of) — but I’m here to give my honest feedback, and I’ll be blunt: beyond the awesome presentation, the gameplay is very simple and often tedious. if the entire game consisted of only level 4, I wouldn’t have any complaints. it felt way too long for what it is, even after just one playthrough, let alone two.