So, you took two of my favorite genres, shooters & RPGs and sorta combined them. For that, good job. I'll be critiquing your game to my own personal preferences more than I probably normally would, because it will be difficult to be objective since I have a lot of opinions about shooters and RPGs. Whether that's good or bad, idk. But you've been warned, just know I'm saying everything here out of love for your game.
So art. The art is good. Everything is obvious as to what it is, it does it's job. I don't have much to say beyond it suits the game and it does a good job for what it's supposed to do.
For sound design, it's in a similar boat to the art. It's good, it fits well with the art, it loops, it does what it's supposed to. Good job.
For gameplay, I have a bit more to say. Putting this in bullet point format so it has some semblance of organization.
- So, I really like this concept, I think it's really fun. However, I *really* don't like hard resets. It felt fairly punishing to lose all my progress since it takes a few minutes to get somewhat far in the game. I gave it 5-6 attempts before I eventually gave up. I don't like giving up on games like this because it feels unfair to the creator(s) to not make it completely through a game. I had that happen to me a couple times with my game and it doesn't feel good. But in this case, it takes a few minutes to regain progress to where I was before, if I even make it that far again, and I really didn't care too much for that.
- The combat itself is pretty fun. I'm gonna break down each element.
- Sword. This was the thing I used the least. It was probably the most effective for actually killing shit, but it was effectively just pointing your mouse in one direction and poking things to kill them. It wasn't boring, but it didn't strike me as super fun either.
- Bow & Arrow. This was my favorite weapon. However, minor criticism. It shot off center of my crosshair, to the point where it didn't even touch the crosshair at all. It did this consistently. And as someone that plays shooter games, a gun of any kind that doesn't shoot where I'm aiming is not as fun for me. I'm not sure if you gave it a spread, but I pretty consistently aimed a good bit to the right of enemies and that seemed to hit them, since it always went left (I think that's the direction it went). However, it would've been much better to just aim *at* them for me than to the side to accurately hit them. I also would've liked the cooldown between firing each shot to be a little more clear and more frequent. I thought I only had one arrow at first because it was so long and you don't show the cooldown anywhere. But despite that, this was still the most fun weapon to use for me.
- Shield. This was...okay. I think I would've liked the shield more with a little less knockback. The knockback is good for realism but it felt like a little too much knockback. I had a few, what felt like, unfair deaths because the knockback pushed me into an enemy behind me. I would've just used only the bow and arrow if the shield wasn't required to hit stuff. I also don't understand, was there a particular reason in-game to hit stuff with the bow and arrow or shield once before the enemy died? Is there a reason that a character, in this world, could explain as to why that's the case? While it's fine as a "you do this to make it happen" mechanic. But logically, it didn't make sense without an explanation in the world itself. I don't consider this an issue considering this a game jam with a 48 hour time limit but it's something I wanted to mention for any future projects you do that you have longer development times for. Little things like that go a long way.
- I also don't understand, was there a particular reason in-game to hit stuff with the bow and arrow or shield once before the enemy died? Is there a reason that a character, in this world, could explain as to why that's the case? While it's fine as a "you do this to make it happen" mechanic. But logically, it didn't make sense without an explanation in the world itself. I don't consider this an issue considering this a game jam with a 48 hour time limit but it's something I wanted to mention for any future projects you do that you have longer development times for. Little things like that go a long way.
- Now, onto some other gameplay stuff. Some of my deaths had a "there's little to nothing I could have done to prevent that" vibe to them. For example, I had my bow out at one point. Then I got a bunch of enemies that spawned in that couldn't die unless they were hit by a shield. In the time that I picked up my shield, I hit one enemy with it, was knocked back into another, and died. To me, that felt like death because of randomness and that is *never* a good thing in my book. If someone dies, I believe it should be from their own skill, not because the game said "you were holding the wrong weapon when enemies spawned in".
- Lastly, I just want to reiterate that, despite my criticisms, I enjoyed your game a lot. I love shooters and RPGs and this was no different. I just found it too difficult. It was really fun and I would've liked it a lot more if the bow was a little more accurate (since that was my favorite weapon). Checkpoints or something to not have a hard reset would make it feel a little more fair. Some of my deaths were a lack of skill on my end, I can admit that. But I didn't like the ones that were from randomness or the games system just deciding to not like me in that particular moment. Another thing, I often died from my own weapons on the ground getting in the way and slowing me down.
Overall, I really enjoyed the game. It was fun, but too difficult for me personally. I didn't care for the hard resetting and wish the combat felt a little more polished. But overall, this was a game made in 48 hours. It was fun and you should be proud of what you made in such a short time. I genuinely enjoyed a lot and I plan on recommending it to a few people. great job!