i always love to see SDL2 games or similar. i feel like they often feel snappy and responsive in a way that big game engine games just don't quite match, and this game is no exception. it feels lightweight and fast.
the pixel art is absolutely beautiful. the animations seem crazy detailed to me. like, how are there different death animations based on where the enemies hit you?!?! it's great.
there is one aspect of the game i greatly dislike, which is the mandated "r to restart." imo the restarts should just happen automatically, and should ideally take less than a second. but requiring to press r is especially bad. this is because i have to basically lift up my entire hand from where it is comfortably resting on x and z (or, at least, awkwardly stretch it from its comfortable position), and move it to press the r key, and then of course move it back to x and z. this feels like a gigantic interruption in the otherwise smooth control scheme, and it makes dying feel much more punishing than it actually should be. i don't want to sound like i'm over-exaggerating but i truly do believe this single feature basically broke the flow of the game completely, just because of how much of a physical interruption it is.
i suppose i should have considered rebinding the controls but i think i kinda forgot about that possibility.
anyways. there is a lot of great stuff here despite my gripes with the restarting. the gameplay itself is difficult but rewarding, although i definitely went on the easy mode with the checkpoints. i did grind out the boss fight though, which was fun if a little grueling. i think the spear is a very tricky weapon to learn how to use, especially due to the fact that tapping the attack key as fast as possible is kinda what you want to do to minimize downtime. but, this makes it all the more rewarding when you eventually figure it out.