Hey, I got a chance to play the game. Overall, I liked it, however, I did stop at 1-6, so hopefully what I say is still helpful and/or relevant in some way.
I love the soul and energy of this game. I'll be upfront and say that I'm not a fan of classic D&D stuff like the worlds and vibes, but I can see the appeal much more after playing this game. There's been a lot of love put into the game. Even adding something small like an intro cutscene makes a big difference in how I felt playing the game. Makes it feel like a full experience, which is moreso something I say bc I am working on a game that currently has no proper intro cutscene, but still.
The dialogue in this game is really entertaining, with humor and wit without sacrificing gameplay function or being too shallow. My favorite moment was when the sword shopkeepers were poking fun at eachother in a very sibling manner. I also really like the hub world, things are closeby eachother, but theres also space for the characters to just be a part of the world without necessarily serving an in game function. I'm sure those bottom areas open up later in the game to do something, but I figure I mention that.
I felt pretty overwhelmed when booting up the game, and seeing all the stats and the possible items. I suppose that is kinda like starting up a D&D character, and since I'm pretty unfamiliar with these types of games, I had no idea at first what I was looking at. I can see myself getting used to it though. There's just a lot of options that are frontloaded, which isn't my favorite feeling in the world, but I can imagine the alternative would also be frustrating, so I suppose it's not the end of the world.
One thing I wasn't able to figure out was a way to respec feat points. I accidentally put some points into the first skill, not knowing exactly what was going on, and then now it was gone. I would appreciate a way to respec, or at least being forced to confirm before moving forward if non resetable feat points is what you want, since I feel like it's too easy to accidentally put a point in something random.
My main issue with the game is the combat. I don't think much has to be changed, but I feel like the enemy placements and the player's innate ability don't mesh together well. Maybe I'm bad, but I think the player is not mobile enough to take on these hordes of enemies, even with the lure out strategy I found to be the best strategy by a longshot. I'm not asking for a dash or anything, but I feel like the attack animation pauses movement for too long considering how easy it is to get swarmed, even when luring. I also feel like luring them out isn't that fun to do, but also going straight in is a death sentence due to how stuck in place u are when you attack. I think luring them out could be more fun if you're actionable sooner.
For spells, I got chilly, flamethrower and the star one, and they were alright. They felt kinda expensive to use considering you stand still while casting. I suppose using them to pick off enemies b4 they aggro onto you mightve been the optimal strat, but they dont feel too exciting due to their limited functionality. It was also hard to aim the star spell at the exact target I wanted, since it felt like it magnetized to another enemy, instead of picking off the strong slime in the center. I am curious to hear from u what direction you wanna take combat in, because despite everything I wrote, there is hardly a right or wrong answer depending on what you intend.
Speaking of attack animations, I'll be honest it doesn't feel that good to attack. The animation speed feels too linear, the posing and the smear are servicable, but lacks any impact. I think the timing of the animation is the big problem, so hopefully that's a relatively simple fix. It's not the end of the world, but I think it could definitely be touched on and improved for a pretty sizable difference.
The music is neat, it does fit in the world, but it's not that memorable. Same w/ sound effects.
The graphics may be rudimentary and amateur-feeling, but I think they were successful! Perhaps color choice is a bit on the duller side imo, but I really like and appreciate how expressive the characters and world are. To me, that makes up for the lesser technical aspects.
There is a lot of love, soul and potential in the game, and I did enjoy playing it for the hour I played, but at the moment, I don't feel too compelled to go back and play it without any updates, mostly due to the awkward combat. I'm probably not the target audience, but I hope you found any of this to be helpful. If not, oh well lol.
Sorry if I come off as blunt or harsh here, but since feedback is encouraged here, I figured I speak truthfully. I don't want to tear you down, since IK being a game dev is a tough, yet fulfilling position to be in. There was way more good than bad here, and I think you're onto something great! Keep up the good work.
CheesiMoon
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For sure, I did sense that u wanted Hemi buffed over Acro nerfed, but I think I'll implement the retooled armor idea first before applying any balance changes, since that's a pretty big game changer.
I'm sure ur sensing some hesitation from my end, and I guess my hesitation to buff Hemi comes from me wanting to be a bit careful about increasing the power level of the characters, since they're already quite strong as is, but I can see that I might be a bit too careful, and overall giving nerfs hurt more for sure. I think I'll still nerf Acro's Up Air's damage since it does way too much for him, but I'll keep everything else intact for now, and then buff Hemi. Maybe revert the Up Air nerf in the future, but yes balancing them is gonna be tricky, but hey we still got a ton of time to balance them out, especially since Hemi's Up and Down Air moves haven't been made yet. I hope u'll be excited to try them out in the coming future! Thank you once again for playing!
Ah yes that makes a lot of sense actually! I recall buffing Acro bc he felt weak compared to Hemi, but I think I definitely overdid it. In particular, I didn't test Acro's Up Air move against the boss, and wow, it really did trivialize it. It should serve to extend combos against bosses, not start and extend. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. While I am not a huge fan of nerfing, I may have to here since I really like how Hemi feels damage and range wise. At least Acro's Up Air, that move is ridiculous lol.
Actually, while writing this, I got a new idea and I think I'll experiment a change to how the boss knockback system will work first before readjusting Acro and Hemi. Basically, instead of only being able to knock back bosses while attacking, they will always be knockbackable, but instead, they'll now have armor during their attacks, which will be broken the same way that it is now, dealing enough damage during their animation to break it. I think emphasizing the knockback system even more should be good fun, but this will merely be an experiment for now.
Thank you for playing, and writing your thoughts here! I really appreciate it! More updates will definitely come to a page near you!
Hey I'm glad you enjoyed the game! The floating there is natural, because of the way tilesets are handled, so when the tilesets are finished, it won't look like they're floating.
Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you thought was OP about Acro? I'd like the character choice to be meaningful, so having one be blatantly better than the other would diminish that fun. Thank you!
Having just played the DEMO_1 version, I enjoyed the game. It is Kirby inspired in terms of visuals and gameplay, but not in a copycat way, but moreso as a foundation for new ideas to take place in. I am a huge Kirby fan, so perhaps I'm a bit biased. I'm looking forward to seeing more in the future, but for now, here are my thoughts on the game so far:
VISUALS:
Characters are very charming, especially Mein himself. Love the ear wiggle details, and the victory pose in particular. Enemies are also given charm too, but the focus is still on Mein. While I have a lot of praise for the characters and their animations, I feel the shading and color palette could use a lot of improvement. I am especially not a fan of the banding present in the vast majority of the sprites. I think banding in general does not look good on modern displays; it muddies the sprite, and makes them look...a bit strange. I feel like a bigger focus on concrete shadow areas from 1 light source could make the sprites look a lot nicer. The colors, especially in the background, I feel could also improve a lot. The shadow colors don't look too interesting to me, and I feel the rest of the game looks a bit too dull, in a way that doesn't quite feel intentionally so. Not too sure about visual direction in terms of the characters and the world, but these more fantastical environments feel like they should have a little more vibrancy present.
MUSIC:
Music was fine. Inoffensive, but nothing memorable yet. Maybe I haven't played it enough to really let it sink in, but I can't really remember anything that was played. Sound effects were cool, the attack swing sfx sounded nice, but some seem to be missing, like a proper hit effect, which is understandable as an early demo.
GAME FEEL:
I played via keyboard, and overall, gameplay feels nice and responsive. There are nice visual effects for most actions, and for the ones that are missing, I assume they will be introduced in future versions. I really like the fact that jumping after running preserves the previous momentum; it just feels right and I will never really know why a good amount of games like this don't have that. But also, moving the other direction mid jump will cancel the run boost, which is fair, and gives run jumping some risk. However, I can't help but feel that it's a bit unfortunate that colliding into walls make you lose your run boost. Also holding both right and left cancels movement, which is fine, but I would prefer a system that allows the most recent move key to overpower the other one, rather than cancelling each other out. But honestly, that is a big nitpick, and isn't even relevant for controller users, but I think it's nice when games with keyboard support do that. I think my biggest issue with the gameplay was the sluggishness of the attacks. Not in terms of animation; the attack animations are very solid. But rather, using the attacks feel a bit more sluggish than I'd like. The grounded attack will keep you in place for a bit, which depending on gameplay direction, isn't inherently bad, but the animation feels a tad too long for an attack that locks you out of movement options mid-animation.
Honestly, that's not too bad; maybe I'm just used to faster paced games, and not every game needs to be fast paced, but what's more egregious to me is the fact that you can only use the air attack once until you land. Not even double jumping will refresh the counter. It feels a bit jank and arbitrary to use because of that. Maybe the attack is too powerful to be used in the air as many times as you want, but I feel like this is not the most optimal method on balancing the attack; it simply feels bad to me because it feels like control was taken from me. Also landing on the ground mid attack will make you unable to use the attack button for a bit, like there's an internal cooldown. I think the main bad part about that is that there's no visual indicator that shows I can't use the attack. The character will do their usual animation, but now I just cant attack until some invisible timer allows me to attack again. It's cool to see Kirby Adventure styled gameplay back, with Mein's attacks feeling like Sword Kirby from that game, but I think it could be handled better.
That being said, I will state once again that maybe I'm a bit too biased and used to faster paced games that have land cancel attacks and stuff like that, and that direction might not be what you want, so take what I said with a big grain of salt.
GAMEPLAY:
The level layout is pretty solid so far! I love the button input images throughout the level; a fantastic way of showing someone the controls without stopping the pace of the game, or flipping through a menu. Level design did a nice job of teaching me the mechanics, and the enemies in the later part of the level do a good job of elevating tension by just a bit to feel like my skills are being tested. The boss fight works really well as a tutorial boss; their pattern is very simple, but still requires players to be engaged to finish the fight, which is surprisingly difficult to balance. It has the right difficulty as part of the first stage, which is awesome.
CONCLUSION:
Great foundation so far, I'm excited to see what new ideas you have in mind. It would be nice if visual direction and game feel were refined a bit more, but so far, so good! I might've had a lot more negative to say for game feel than I expected, but I think they're mostly nitpicks in the grand scheme of things. Keep up the good work, and I'll be back to play updated versions!