Hey thanks for the challenge! I enjoyed that the gameplay itself ‘Transformed’, looks like we were on similar wavelengths with that idea. I noticed that when I went into the first boss battle, if I didn’t buy a weapon then I was still allowed to proceed but it seemed like I wouldn’t take any damage at all, so I was stuck and needed to reload the game. When I bought a weapon, I received 2 weapons (sword and bow) and then would die with 1 hit from the teardrops. I managed to beat both bosses with a bow, I couldn’t figure out how to use the sword without taking any damage myself. I was also hoping that the artefacts would be useful later or counted in the success screen.
I have some ideas for minor upgrades to the game, for instance the static instructional text could be dynamic based on what the player has bought in the shop, so there’s no “If you bought a weapon…”. Maybe the guard can even stop you from entering the boss battle if you’re not equipped, something like “No you’re clearly not ready”. I’m sure with more time and testing the issues I mentioned above would have been addressed as well.
Nice entry, well done!