Just saw this on your twitter bio, decided to try it out.
I love the concept, but had to put the pause at max to make any headway. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this game...
At first I expected to be able to target the rice baskets, but that didn't seem to work. I found actually moving through jumps / WASD kind of distracting... I just wanted to click slash anything and everything. Had a lot of trouble even making it to the platforms intentionally, even with the 1s timer.
I also wasn't sure what the difference was between horizontal and vertical slices, if there is one.
Not sure you're still working on this, but here's a couple of quick thoughts:
* Add a "Dog Ninja" mode with infinite pause
* Allow Lanterns to respawn over time (I ran out of the high lanterns)
* Make Lanterns more visible from the bottom / top (if them being hard to see wasn't intentional)
* Consider Targets that REQUIRE Vertical / Horizontal slices (wrong attack = health loss? temp loss of control?)
* Consider "Bonus" objects that go into a Fist of the North Star / Fruit Ninja button mash mode when hit and award points based on the number of slashes done during a time period
Anyway, I'm rambling at this point. I think it's cool though and has tons of potential! Could go any direction with it, really.