This was my highest score after a few attempts lol
Great little game lol.
The overall presentation is cool. Both in terms of audio and visuals. Love the overall feeling of atmosphere that was packed into every level
The boss designs were also cool. Let it be their sprites ( which looked amazing ) or their actual attacks which had a nice mix of bullet hell, AOE attacks and melee attacks ( However, I have more to say when it comes to these attacks )
The starting upgrades were cool and I'm sure would definitely add to the replayability of the game. I personally just went with the first one though lol.
The music is amazing oof. I agree with some of the other comments below. Please allow us to download it lol.
I think some of the weapons need some re-working though. The area that your melee covers seems to be too small, so I honestly just never used the sword slashes and blasts. Even the lunging sword slash wasn't really too useful either because the area covered isn't much. Only " flash " and " toss " were actually useful.
Along with that, some of the boss's attacks seem kinda cheap and unbalanced sometimes. The game's readability in general suffers because of the amount of particle effects and things just happening in general on the screen. It's especially prevalent in the case of the grave digger with the bullets just not visible sometimes. The butcher's melee attack is also way too big imo.
Trying to fight the hairbeast also makes it apparent that you really shouldn't have a hard limit on the amount of dodges you can do. Especially with how fast some of the bosses are in comparison to you.
I'm also not really a fan of how you can get stuck on some objects in the environment. If I had to make a suggestion here, it would be that these could get destroyed by the player or the boss over time ? Because some of my deaths came because I was trying to dodge the boss's attacks, had no where else to go because the rest of the arena was covered by the boss's attacks and then got stuck in-between some of the props present. Or you could maybe have these props be outside of the playable arena.
All of that said, this was an awesome entry overall.
Thanks for the really detailed response! We really appreciate it!
Card-artifact synergy is very important to the game. I think you thought the melee attacks were weak because you hadn't seen much of the artifacts that could improve them. Melee cards tend to have low or even zero mana cost, making them particularly useful for taking out summons. Also, cards like chop or scorpion swing can also dish out high damage to the boss if you get near enough to land all their projectiles. It just takes some careful artifact choice and maneuvering. Generally though, I do think melee attacks could still use some buffs.
Though, you were right about the gravedigger. His particles were too big, especially with the "great boulder" attack. We noticed it after uploading, which was too late lol. The butcher, though, was meant to have really large melee attacks. It's kinda his thing, so the player just best stay away when he gets near, which is generally the rule of thumb for bosses with melee attacks. Alternatively, you could steal the artifacts that make them dangerous (for the butcher, the bonesaw, rune knife, and ceremonial shears really boosted his slash area), making them more manageable while also making your melee attacks a lot more effective.
Regarding the environment objects, dashing actually allows you to pass through them, if you didn't notice. Also, some artifacts can increase your movement speed and max stamina, which could be helpful for bosses like the hairbeast, though I personally think good spacing and timing is a bigger factor. Taking advantage of the invulnerability frames when dashing is crucial with pounce and ram attacks.
If you like, you could watch the gameplay videos we posted so you could see how we personally played the game! Our personal best (which was not recorded, unfortunately, but here's a screenshot) was using the creed of obsession!
Thanks again for the feedback! Given that the game is basically still in development, it's so helpful to hear other people's experiences!