I love the synergies but I absolutely hate all the tradeoff items, there are very few situations in which I would take any of them. Items with downsides are fun like poison, but tradeoffs like damage up for a firerate down seem pointless when you could just have a damage up. Maybe add more mechanically interesting items like the piercing, bouncing and OT damage? These kinds of items are my favourites. Maybe enemies explode into bullets or just enemies explode on death, or maybe shocking bullets to complement the ice and fire bullets? Once you've established a larger and consistent playerbase these more technical items that synergise will become established metas, and at that point some of the small-time roguelike Let's Players like Ailensrock and Sifd might pick this up. It's got a lot of potential. Also, love the artstyle and the pixelation option, simpler art styles always lend themselves more to roguelikes and make the game mechanics seem more refined.
Thank you for the review!
Some mechanics/items changed a lot since this prototype has been made available to the public, but still, many of the things you pointed out are still in the game. I will really take into consideration this feedback and apply it in the final version.
I also felt like tradeoff items are pretty boring and unpickable but at the same time, advantage only items would make the game too easy. I will try to find a solution, maybe less tradeoffs, or new items with interesting ones.
Thank you again for the feedback, this type of reviews really help me!
This game is also supposed to release on Steam soon (by soon I mean 2-3 months) so, if you're interested in playing the full version of the game follow me for updates!
You're certainly right that only advantage items would make the game too easy, right now it's hard but not unwinable (is that a word?) it's just that I've played it quite a bit and without having a lot more or more interesting items there's not much replayability. Also, are you going to make starting shapes? Like if you kill 500 triangles you get a fast character with low health, or killing bombs gives you high health but only contact damage? Adding unlocks would massively increase replayability. Again, I do love the game and I've been playing it for months now, please don't massively change it, aesthetic and core gameplay are very well-made.
The core gameplay hasn't changed a lot, if at all. It's just polishing that was added, a few new items, and performance improvements.
The development is nowhere close to the end, and the game can still be called a "prototype". It will definitely receive maaany updates regarding items (my plan is having at least 50 items), enemies, bosses, performance, better UI and even replayability.