Cool art, nice ambiance (mostly), and interesting combo system. Overall the execution of the clever ideas was not balanced, and led to a confusing and frustrating time. I did manage to defeat all the enemies and unlock all the skills, but I got stuck for a while before finally stumbling upon the house with the cellar. So thankfully was able to beat the game (savior ending). A few jam related suggestions:
- Fights were way too hard, even on easy. Jam difficulty should skew easier, and if you have an easy option, actually make it easy!
- Fights were repetitive and numerous. Every minute counts in a jam. If I'm fighting 10 of the same spirit, the first one or two are fun, the next 8 are tedious. Even if the battles are optional, every single one has to be meaningful and ideally, memorable.
- Wandering is not fun gameplay. I probably used up 5-8 minutes not knowing where to go. If I stuck with the the 30 minute limit, I would end my game on a frustrating note. Even with the notes found, figuring out where the house was didn't make much sense.
- More care to sounds. They broke the ambiance in a lot of places, from the cancel sound to the victory music.
- One or two scripted battles that do a better job describing the combat mechanics.
- EIther playtest thoroughly, or get one person to play through real quick for bugs. There were some map transition problems, the sign softlocked my game once, and other little things like the disappearing ranger didn't make sense.