First of all, this game is not a shoot-em-up as mentioned in the submission details, but more of a beat-em-up which is in the same category as card. However, it does have a platformer feel with the double jump and dashing spells needed to traverse around enemies, so I’ll treat it as such.
Sylvanna’s Trial is a pretty fun and polished game. All of the cards can combo into one another seamlessly which is amazing and feels very good to control. In terms of solid controls, this is a 10/10. Gameplay-wise, the difficulty curve is quite skewed. It starts off okay, then it gets difficult because the movement spells get in the way of attack spells, then it gets easy because stronger spells get introduced, then it gets insanely hard with a bullet spongy boss (with a shield that damages you and not much room to maneuver) because there’s so much randomness in the 10 different cards that you don’t know you’re gonna get - one of which: Single Tear is useless because the shield reaches above to block it. With such powerful movement spells, it feels claustrophobic with so little room to maneuver. I feel like I’m being forced into a single playstyle, there’s only one way to beat the boss and that’s to reload until I get movement to switch sides, and reload until I get attack (not Single Tear please) to perform a hit - do anything else and I get my face bashed in, which is a terrible feeling. The combo system oozes freedom of player expression, yet the difficulty design limits player freedom in many of such ways. There really should be a weighted randomness system, where the player has a high chance to get at least 1 attack and 1 movement, and only occasionally get 3 movements.
To add to Single Tear, it is quite an underpowered spell whose purpose is solely anti-air (and for armor but there are ways around it). It’s too specific to leave it up to a random draw, lacks any range, and requires you to face in the direction you want to drop it. I suggest buffing it to auto-target the nearest enemy instead, since there’s not a single “magic missle” guaranteed hit spell in the game. It didn’t feel right that the Dash Staff has no invincibility, or if it does then the timing is so tight that it is very easy to miss. Every time I use Dash Staff, I have to remind myself to jump first which diminishes its purpose if I have Winged Hills (double jump buys me time), Phase Shift or Helen’s Dagger. It’s underwhelming to the point that I’ll just reload for another movement card because that’s 3 cards out of the 10, which is a good chance.
In terms of UI, the reload hotkey ‘V’ for some reason actually distracted me the first few times because of how close it is to C in both shape and position. Of course, if we just look directly at it, it’s obvious that they’re different, and you might think I’m crazy, but when I was focused on the character, it confused my peripheral vision to treat it as the C spell somehow. I suggest moving the ‘V’ to the bottom right of the reload icon so that it is not in the same row as the ZXC key legends.
Despite the serious balancing issues, this game feels really good to play and I quite enjoyed my time with it. Graphics are good and sounds are meaty and impactful. Great job!