Wow I loved this. Sekiro left a sekiro-shaped hole in my heart and this game briefly filled it. I loved every single boss, even though they all shared the same base set of animations, you really did an amazing job giving each attack pattern from each boss its own identity (like that one bastard move where that one boss does a jump-attack 3 times in a row whiel tracking you. I was always on the lookout for that one).
Learning the bosses was so damn rewarding. Differentiating between the subtle sprite change of ‘sword back’ vs ‘sword forward’ for the second boss, which led to two different attack patterns (i think one had a jump attack in it) was really cool. I appreciated the little upgrades after the bosses too. Once I had the double-combo upgrade, it felt like the bosses went a lot more smoothly. To that end, I think the first boss felt a little long (‘first’ for me is the ‘mountain symbol’ (?) boss).
One of my favorite things about phase 2 of each fight was how it necessitated a slight un-learning of what you memorize in phase 1. It made it so each attempt felt fresh, like after dying to a long phase 2 fight, I’d have to almost re-learn phase 1.
One really cool thing about this game is how you utilize especially dangerous patterns interspersed with more simple patterns. Like the aforementioned triple white jump attack: Even though that attack was infrequent for the 2nd boss, I still dreaded it, which made me jumpy any time the boss looked at me funny.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this game. Felt like a little distillation/shot of sekiro.
Also, look at you, another Defold game! Seems like you’re liking it? Thought you were on a pico 8 bender but looks like you’re just a lua fiend (same)