I like the artstyle and character animations, but as others have mentioned, the slippery/floaty player movement makes the game very difficult to control correctly. Here are some suggestions:
- Horizontal movement has too much inertia, the player should feel more in control of starting/stopping the character.
- Jumping is very floaty, and can unpredictably move the player forward. Adding increased gravity on the downward arc would go a long way towards making it feel nicer.
- It was unclear that wall jumps were available, so it took me a bit to figure out how to go up the vertical section before the boss. Maybe introduce this ability with a tip at the beginning, or make it an unlockable ability towards the end.
- Add more visual/auditory feedback in combat! The player should be able to easily tell when they are taking damage from sound effects and visual flare, and doing damage to enemies should feel satisfying and juicy.
- The parry ability was cool, but the timing for when it worked was pretty unclear, maybe add a time slowdown or flash effect when it happens?
- As others have mentioned, this is more of an action platformer than a metroidvania. Maybe you can work on gradually introducing the various abilities over the course of a few rooms, and add more branching paths.
This was a good start, so I am excited to see how it develops from here. Oh yeah, and the music is exciting and energetic, I definitely see the influence from The Prodigy's Invaders Must Die.