played through it again
very nice new cover art, i especially like the posing and the tiny cultist in the back!
the manlets are growing more powerful, they're getting dangerous
i like the new animations and (new?) SFX. i forgot if the enemy voices existed in the last version. also, for whatever reason SFX volume was set to 0 at boot - i don't remember ever setting it at that last time in case you use PlayerPrefs. not a bug, but i thought i'd mention it anyway
the enemy behavior is changed for the better - they don't run away as much and their moveset is good. i like the lunge attack and the finishing blow, it's very nice. the finishing blow is still as punishing as ever, though. even if the windup is slow, getting knocked down means instant death since by the time you're about to get up, you're dead. perhaps some sort of roll move, to avoid the death punch? either way, the difficulty also feels a bit easier, which is good. i'd still tone down the enemy movement speed when they're backing off a bit, since playing cat and mouse while protecting an orb is a bit annoying, since pursuing an enemy (which is encouraged by their backing off behavior) leads to a clever enemy sniping the orb. while these are "correct" enemy tactics, playing against those as a player is always annoying, since the proper move would be to not pursue and wait for them to approach. waiting is boring, i want to punch clones of myself to death instead! i guess that's why there are orb-less modes, but again it goes against the intended design of the game.
there were also some errors i haven't noticed before, such as
>jumping as the player messes the arm positions halfway into the animation
>falling down reveals the character's large bald spots
>the giant pillar is considered normal terrain for the enemies - they can walk up it at great speeds as if it was flat terrain. the player can also jump along it for a bit, but i can't reach the top like the enemies do
as always, keep up the good work. eager to see how this develops more in the future