I have to say, the moment I came across Project Kat I've been heavily invested in the story. This game definitely did not disappoint! Both forms of art, pixel art and drawings, were incredible. (I couldn't help but smile watching the small animation of Hiro ruffling Lacie's hair) I love the subtle ties back to Project Kat, and hints at the stories further mixing in the future. However, since this game is a demo, I'd like to give the most detailed feedback I can so the end game can be as polished as possible.
**Spoilers from this point onwards**
Firstly: Minor bugs. The first thing I noticed is in Miss Knives' house. When you complete various tasks for the plants, one of the plants requests water. I brought back the water for the plant, but Lacie watered the plant that had requested alcohol instead. Very minor, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Another bug I found was when you remove the golden eye from the painting of the girl. When she chased me, she froze in place and began glitching, allowing me to escape without a chase. (Before this, she had chased me several times without issue, so I'm not really sure what the problem was)
Second: Critiques and ideas. The only major thing I want to address is the shadowy figures in the abandoned facility. They were nearly impossible to avoid. I understand their purpose in attempting to shepherd the player to the unguarded elevator, but I feel that if the creatures were made more abundant and slower, it would be more of a challenge while not seeming impossible. Because they moved so quickly, my original impression was that I didn't have all the fuses I needed, and it was meant to be impossible because I was doing it wrong, forcing me to look up a video and discover I was right initially. This was very frustrating, and I hope it will be done differently in the final game.
I'm definitely not the first one to point out the difficulty of the spikes minigame and the Miss Knives minigame. It definitely caught me off guard a bit, since there was no battle mechanic in Project Kat, but I found that I really enjoyed it! It really added an extra layer to the gameplay and an element of challenge. Admittedly though, I do wish the battling had been used more often to truly build-up to the fight with Miss Knives. Though clicking to dodge is fairly self-explanatory, a progression of difficulty would have definitely made completing the Miss Knives battle that much more satisfying. As I mentioned before, though, it is very difficult. I can imagine there being a large portion of fans who prefer the puzzle aspects and story of the game to the combat. This could be fixed with the option of a story mode, which skips over the battles to focus more on the puzzles. Of course, I'm not much of a game developer, so I have no idea how difficult that would be to execute, I just thought I would propose the suggestion.
To summarize: The art was beautiful. The unique aspect of branching paths remained as interesting in this game as in its predecessor. The new addition of battles was interesting, and I hope they continue in future chapters. The story still continues to draw me in, and I look forward to seeing how it grows.
If you're reading this creators: I'll make sure to fill out the Google Form as well for your convenience :) Great work!