Damn, that's a fun game!
I thought it looked good on Twitter and it looks even better getting to play it!
First impressions as I played:
-looked like a controller-style game, but my controller had some mapping issues (trigger buttons pressed start instead of rotating camera etc) - this is probably on my end, but just in case it's a Logitech F310, I've remapped controls in other games, but I didn't think it would affect this, as the game recognized the controller and displayed the appropriate buttons during the instructions, so again, likely an issue on my end
-damn this game is gorgeous, reminds me of a mashup of Zelda, Souls and Hyper Light Drifter, I get a tiny bit of the Dead Space guy from the protagonists helmet, and I'm not sure if this is at all intentional but I'm picking up vibes from an old C64 game, White Viper
-fun controls, nice quick intro to mechanics and it's off to the game, I spent a while in the first area just moving around and panning the camera and looking around, which makes the next bit all the more ridiculous:
-I got stuck for a few minutes with the first puzzle because I forgot to pan the camera around, and kept hitting the first switch and not seeing the second, then leaving the area, thinking that I had to hit that one switch in all the different paths you could go down, before finally realizing that I could look around, and solved the puzzle immediately. I think because of the associations with Zelda and HLD I kept thinking of the game as happening from a static overhead view, and that things that I couldn't see were intentionally hidden (like a switch behind a statue or wall in Zelda), rather than the reality of this game having an additional dimension to explore, or an additional perspective, at least. So, even as I'm writing this I'm thinking: this was introduced right at the beginning of the game, and I got stuck in one spot until I figured it out, which took a grand total of 2-3 minutes, and learning that left the impression that I might need to do that again, which is probably what you want. So I don't think it's really a criticism, maybe just make it a little more obvious, like a line from your NPC, "Make sure you look around up ahead." "Don't forget to look around you." "A skilled warrior is always aware of what is around them." Or something like that.
-Boss battle was fun, took a few runs at it, did better each time, but haven't taken it down yet. I rushed in and slashed madly when it started and when it dipped below the water I thought I killed it. Then when it came back, and all the rocks were falling, and the shadows, and the different timings, and the octopus sliding back and forth across the arena, crazy, hectic fun. Half of my deaths came from trying to get too many hits in before it spun around, only to get caught in its teeth and dragged down. I died and died and died and wanted more, what higher compliment can I give!
I'll update once I've had a chance to play more/investigate my controller issue, but, really, great job all around, from one solo dev to another!
ps - i am a composer and sound designer, if you're looking for music/SFX, and since you seem to have an eye for design/colour, maybe you'd consider doing a skill trade? Textures for Music/SFX? https://soundcloud.com/spectralvectors
pps - sorry to go off-topic!