I'mma be real with you, chief. I'll admit to real lad stuff right now: I haven't played Vampire Survivors yet. That's it. My feedback thus may come off as completely out of touch with the genre, or the LORD willing, somewhat valuable on the virtue of being unaffected by the expectations set forth by the bullet heaven gold standard; I'm leaving it here either way.
Sweet fireworks. I must say this is pretty much what I expected the VS-like genre to be from the many descriptions and scattered gameplay footage I might have seen through the years. More seasoned anons may mock me for my inexperience or not mind what I'll say at all, but I wouldn't mind investing time into this game as it plays right now if the greater content variety expected of the genre and the QoL features I felt the game was missing were already there.
The first of these QoL features could take one of many forms: a pre-run map, a compass, minimap or pronounced landmarks. A great positive in the current HUD is its tidiness. EXP bar on top, health, coins, and timer below. Just the right amount on information, allowing the player to focus their attention on what's going on in the game scene. The game currently plays fine without a mini-map or other orientation tools such as that, which may risk detracting from the experience. However, it's easy getting lost on the map, and one is powerless against this circumstance. During my first runs, I was convinced that aside from being timer-based, enemy spawns also varied by area. Further plays have shown me that this isn't quite the case, but even then, this could well be a feature in the future. Giving the player a way to find their way back to the center of the screen (or elsewhere) would be neat, be it by showing a map of the entire room before a run or in the pause menu so the player could grow familiar with its layout, using recognizable landmarks, or, more discreetly, with a compass pointing at the center of the room, maybe at the press of a key or only in the pause menu. I believe something like this is crucial when the Summoner arrives. I wandered for a good two minutes looking from him in my first run. I knew what to expect from the second run on, so it took less time. Still...
The masteries system befuddled me for a few minutes, but I figured it out in the end. I was expecting it to be some permanent RPG-like progression system, but it's more of a bonus picker for the girls with a few special rules in place. I believe the interface could be improved by making it clear which of the skills are available or locked before and after spending a given amount of skill points, and also by showing tooltips when hovering over the skill icons rather than some image you must open and close. I think there's enough space for that on the screen! BTW, there was no Help button on Bomber Girl's page. I bought her final mastery on my second playthrough even though I didn't know its effect. Looking back, considering what the icon looked like, I guess her bombs really were exploding in eight directions during my second playthrough...
Having a health bar for the hundreds of enemies onscreen would be jank, obviously, but again, I guess the Summoner and any other future bosses deserve a health bar that's as unintrusive as the EXP meter on the top of the screen, or at the very least, indicators that you're past a certain damage threshold on their sprites. Before I forget, speaking of damage and sprites, the girls need a more conspicuous way of showing they're taking damage. The stage on the demo is very chill with just a regen upgrade or two, but in future content, with increased difficulty, a player may want more feedback on damage other than the tiny flashing sprite in the middle of the massive enemy hordes.
The only balancing/gameplay complaints I have are: the Bomber Girl's secondary attack being a bit unresponsive and some issues I spotted with the Ice element. Fun fact: I only noticed there was secondary fire on my second playthrough with the first girl, the third overall. The first time around, I thought: "Bomber Girl would be top-tier if she could chuck the bombs". After discovering Main Girl's ice projectiles, I went back and tested Bomber Girl again. Well... at first I thought I didn't like that the bomb had no friction or that it never blows up on impact, but the real problem is that the kick doesn't connect well with the bomb. You have to hold the button until the animation reaches a certain point and you have to be in a certain position in relation to the bomb when that happens. It all kind of makes timing the bomb's explosion a chore. This may be by design, I know... but there's no reason to use the kick at all instead of just spamming bombs if that's so. My opinion is that allowing the girl to kick bombs she has just placed, without needing to move, or just any bomb her sprite happens to connect with, improves that move by magnitudes. As for the Ice element, it seems underpowered in relation to the other two, at least in my playstyle. I guess the Ice aura might be fine (didn't have many chances to pick it, more on that later), but this is especially apparent in Main Girl's secondary attack. A huge windup only to deal a fraction of the damage the blazing fast Fire skill does. All it needs is a good DMG multiplier. I'm sure you'll find the perfect value for it. :)
One more thing: the three elements being Fire, Ice and Lightning shows respect for the classics! Props for going with the definite JRPG elemental trio. I'm all for it.
I feel like the 10-minute timer is an improvement over the 30-minute one I hear ascribed to Vampire Survivors. Just as balanced as the HUD.
(I've noticed there are two regen bonuses offered by the game: a 0.5/s and a 2/s one. One of these two bonuses has a tooltip that mentions the Ice aura, and I remember getting a prompt to activate the real Ice aura only once. Sus. Try checking if this is unintended behavior.)
As a final consideration, want to boost this project's crack potential? Show us the variables. I wanna keep track of what Level my girl is and how many gems she has collected. I wanna check out how many Lightning strikes I have, the size of my flame bullets, my movement speed. The numbers! Show us the numbers! (But always keep the HUD clean. I guess the only thing I'd want to see at all times during play is the character's Level; the rest of the stats can be relegated to the pause screen or to a toggle from the options menu, like The Binding of Isaac's "Found HUD".)
Art is peak appeal and rich in personality. Bomber Girl is CUTE and DUMB!! I am utterly powerless here and my words may even be marketing poison; please forgive the insolence and scratch everything I say if you must, but I implore you not to make the future characters ultra coomerbait. Girl #4 is enough. Your art shines bright as it is; it doesn't need to up the ante from there.
Playthrough: 4 runs, 2 of each with the first two girls, so easily 1+ hour, considering the time spent in the menu and fighting the Summoner. Saved 80k coins; will unlock the final two ladies l8r.
P.S.: noticed there isn't a save system in place yet. Lost my coins when I closed the game.
P.S.2.: noticed the game gives you 10k free coins each time you access the character selection screen. Welp.