I do my best to read all the comments on a game before commenting so I don’t say anything too redundant. Your game has had me reading the most of any I’ve played so far!
I love platformers. I’ve never played The Messenger and perhaps the controls are close to it, but I wasn’t a huge fan of how sticky the wall grabs felt. But that’s really the only platforming mechanic gripe I have. The movement feels great, and I love the small things like being able to jump higher/farther only if you’re holding the staff.
Graphics-wise, it’s already been said but the two styles are very nice. My only nitpick would be I wish there was some clearer visual indicator of which platforms/spikes would move when the mode was changed.
You guys already mentioned that the boss was one of the last things you were able to work on, I would’ve loved to have seen what you could have done with more time! I was confused while playing the boss on hard mode, it took me a long time to realize I needed to switch modes during the fight because the normal mode didn’t require that.
Hard mode was a nice challenge! Very much reminds me of Celeste B/C-sides. I think it was a great idea to take parts that might’ve felt difficult during playtesting and move them to their own dedicated level. Nice reward too ;)
Side note, I appreciate you guys not slapping an obnoxious fisheye CRT effect on the retro mode, it always hurts my head when I have to play games like that lol