This game is great, I really hope you continue to develop it to its full potential.
I don't have a ton of advice but here are a couple things I think could be improved:
- Battles were completely reactive. This is fine, but sometimes I felt like I needed some kind of proactive action to take other than just dodging what the enemy sent at me. I don't know what could fix this, or even if it really is a problem, but I felt I should mention it.
- Another thing I noticed was that because the sounds play as the attacks (notes?) are created, the optimal player movements often don't sync up with the beat. In a lot of musical games it feels great to move with the beat, especially when you are rewarded for it. Maybe a small bonus for moving in time with the beat, such as a combo that ends when you move offbeat? I don't know. I just wish that my movements were incentivized to be better in sync with the music.
- A small thing that makes a huge difference for me and many other players: you need to implement a way to change text speed or allow for skipping the writing animation. I was often pressing space wishing that it would complete the text box instantly so I could read at a faster pace. It doesn't impact gameplay but it really helps and shouldn't be very hard to add in.
That's all the bad stuff I could think of, so here's all the stuff I really liked:
- I love all the characters, especially how they move as they attack you. My favorite was the ATM and its crazy erratic movements and expression changes. I also really like frog (especially his song) and hope he becomes a recurring character later on.
- The battles are fun. They become really engaging when they're hard. If I judged only by gameplay my favorite fight would be the last because of how many things you need to dodge at once. Gets you into a good flow state.
- I like the weirdness. It makes the world really fun and interesting. I hope that the weirdness actually applies to stuff though. Like the ATM requiring your soul actually being just how ATMs work in this world instead of it just being a funny moment. It's a little hard to explain what I mean here, but if you've ever played Mibibli's Quest it's a good example of quirkiness affecting gameplay (it has a musical level with DDR projectiles in one level)
- The game feels pretty good. I like how the backgrounds pulse with the beat
-EDIT: I almost forgot: the visuals are great. I love the aesthetic and atmosphere
Overall, I'm really happy I stumled on this game. I think it has a ton of potential