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Oof, honestly forgot that Block was a thing. I often played with it disabled because I was conflating side dashes with blocks. Adjusting the deadzones with my controller helped reduce misinputs, but I wonder if another/alternate input method would be good for that technique.

Ended up playing the rest to 100% completion on patch 1.1.

As you may have guessed, since I was willing to play to full completion: I liked this, a lot, and I'll be keeping a close eye on the full game. What you've put together for a demo has a boss roster that already puts a lot of full games, of any price range or studio, to shame - in quantity, and in quality.

I think the front half suffers from a certain lack of hitbox leniency and not having your tools yet, but when you get all the mobility upgrades and the range/damage buffs from Buddy 4 - that's when it all clicks, and things feel like they reach their peak. I would point out that bosses like Phan Phan are definitely more challenging in terms of moveset and patterns than Traitor Lord or Hive Knight (or really any non-Pantheon HK boss), and you have Monarch Wings and Shade Dash for those guys!

That being said, on top of the standouts I mentioned before, every boss from 21 onwards was fantastic. They were all just really fun, frenetic, and conceptually sound. Shoutouts to Daroach for being not too hard but really frantic and Dark Nebula for being totally redeemed.

28-30 are all particularly tough. I loved 28 and 30; I would echo CrankyTemplar's thoughts on the latter, as his video helped me find additional openings and get the Silver. 29 is fun too, but I would argue is actually the single most demanding fight in the game, even compared to the fights after. The 5-sword spin and the big petal pulse-in-and-out in phase 2, paired with the gaps in the bottom floor and lingering projectiles, is just a TON to juggle. If that's where you want him in the difficulty curve compared to the rest, I can't suggest you change much, though.

The bonus content behind the medals was the most fun I had with the game, which was the cherry on top to 100%ing.

Overall, this is great. I think design-wise these fights are very, very sound. I think it's a matter of shoring up the controls and hitboxes (coyote time, please!) and aligning the earlier bosses more with the upgrade curve at the start for the full release.

Impressive stuff.

Hey! Enjoyed Waddle Knight 1, and liking Waddle Knight 2 as well. I played WK1 with the benefit of it being just a couple months back, at the end of the patch cycle, so I sort of figured going into this one playing the demo there'd be some balance things. Figured I'd share some feedback from what I've played thus far, having reached Fire Dyna Blade.

The Good

• The new healing system is much better. Getting hit in WK1 was double punishing because it halved(?) your healing gauge, whereas the new Focus meter allows more comebacks from the brink.
• Likewise, some of the new abilities and the partners are great. The spear twirl and Waddle Doo shot feel great, and I like the new buddies' different niches, and how they carry into the shmup sections.
• Graphically the bump-up in polish is noticeable, and the animation work and tells are generally quite good.
• Great soundtrack selections.

The Bad

• I'm getting occasional stutters and frame stops on a fairly strong gaming laptop, mostly at game launch. They seem to go away the more I play in a given session.
• Charge attack's prep time and damage feels reasonable, but the visual effect/sound effect/range all feel a bit lacking. Visually, its tough to see if its a charge slash or not. Some more "oomph" here would go very much  appreciated.
• Yellow stars left over after attacks feel... a bit vestigial in the context of this game. It adds to the Kirby vibe of it all, but I'm always hoping the RNG roll makes them pink stars and not yellow, because yellow stars linger and close off openings. I feel like pink/yellow stars should be non-random, OR have some ways to clear/deflect yellow stars; maybe shoot them with Bronto Burt or something? This came to a head in the Masked Dedede fight, where his puff-up move to launch you back would routinely rocket me into lingering yellow stars for what felt like guaranteed damage.
• I'm left wishing my horizontal attacks just had a biiiit more range very often, due to collision damage being such a thing in this game, especially pre-Shade Dash.
• Jump through platforms feel buggy. Very often in fights involving them heavily, I feel like they're "eating" my jump and I end up just walking off the side. If the game doesn't have coyote time, I think adding it would improve game feel a lot.
• I can't seem to get my secondary attacks to work in SHMUP sections?

The Bosses

• Standouts thus far are Kabula, Storo, Skullseer, Mega Titan, Fire Lion, Kracko EX, and Doc. Of those, Mega Titan felt the most ingenious with its health-regen gimmick, Kracko had the best tells by far, and Fire Lion is an exceptionally well done gank boss when you learn how the Lion's moveset and openings work. It synergizes impressively well with Batafire.
• Wiz misses the above list by a hair, due to what I assume is a glitch; the spotlight tell for the spotlight zoom attack doesn't match where the screen eventually zooms in on, which led to me getting misled and hit.
• Moley's first phase is benign enough, but the addition of Boxer feels like too much going on, especially pre-Shade Dash. If you're trying to evade Boxer and Moley does the triple bolt throw at a distance, the screen is clogged and you're basically forced to take a hit. Plus, the addition of added minions after blitzing one down feels a bit out of place for the first double boss; not even Fire Lion, the post-shade dash duo fight, does that.
• The purple clouds feel finicky in the Whispy EX fight; I wish they'd give a bit more height.
• Boh boh falls victim to the jump through platform thing...
• ...which is doubled down on even more in Fire Dyna Blade, where I got walled and tapped out for the session. The openings feel so sparse (all of her attacks come from her head, which you have to be hugging dangerously close to hit), the middle platforms feel sticky, the middle phase is absurdly punishing if you fall off the debris, and the remix the first phase for what I assume is the final phase is even more punishing. With how quickly you can die from falling in Phase 2, I almost think that there shouldn't be platform gaps in Phase 3. The addition of lingering flames on the ground is oppressive enough, along with the longer attack chains. Also; how the heck do you avoid taking damage from the charge up animation of her big beam attack?

Thank you for the feedback! I have been experimenting with other control schemes, and I hope the addition of controller support will alleviate any controller issues. As far as keyboard support goes, Space to jump can definitely be added.

Later levels will definitely require mixtures of moves to proceed - right now, such movement is possible to string together combos, but not mandated.

I'm glad you enjoyed, and hope to announce more progress soon!

Hey there! Just uploaded a demo for my game Heir To Ruin, a combo-centric platformer. I'd love it if you gave it a try and shared your thoughts. I hope you enjoy it!

Page Link

https://devendgame.itch.io/heir-to-ruin

About

Heir To Ruin is a combo-centric platformer that rewards stylish aerial maneuvers. Inspired by the likes of the Mario  and Mega Man series as well as Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, the current demo contains 3 stages (consisting of a total of 9 levels) to play through. Give it a try and go for high ranks.

Any and all comments and criticisms are hugely appreciated. I hope you enjoy!

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