Just finished the game. Really impressive work and amazing pixel art. Here are some feedback that you could consider when updating the game or working on your next project.
General
- The text in main menu and cutscenes are a bit blurry which may be caused by the anti-aliasing feature of Game Maker. Fiddling with the interpolation setting might yield a clearer image.
- I love how flowers bloom under your feet while you move.
Control
- Holding X would lead to immediate jumping when landing. It would be more intuitive to detect key press instead of key held for jumping.
- On the other hand, I would prefer to automatically glide when X is held while falling instead of requiring another key press to glide.
- Landing during air-attack animation would cancel the attack. This makes some platforming section harder but could also allow some high level strats.
Level
- IRyS doesn't heal you to full health when you first go through the checkpoint, but respawning there does give you full health. Not really a big deal but felt a bit odd.
- The fan blades in windy ruins don't look like they would hurt you but they do.
- Moths in windy ruins are quite annoying to deal with since they exclusively spawn from above your head and fly slightly faster than your move speed while your effective attack range is mostly to the side.
- The world tree platforming part stretches on for a little too long as the layout is largely the same.
Boss fights
- Each boss has an amazing and unique moveset. It is really fun to learn what they do and the animations are really well crafted.
- However some of the moves are too quick and barely give you any time to respond. Some telegraphing before each move could go a long way.
- One example is mumei's moveset, her downward thrust and sword throw move both have her jump into the air. However the former requires you to move away while the latter requires you to stay below her.
- Most bosses are quite well paced, but the last fight is a bit repetitive.
- With all flowers having a hitbox leaving you little space to maneuver, the fight boils down to a test of muscle memory.
- This trait is further emphasized in her all-out attack where you don't really have enough time to dodge the beams unless you memorize the pattern.
- Finally, you could give players more leeways to dodge boss attacks by incorporating platforming mechanics into their respective boss fight, fans in moom fight, bouncy node in sana fight etc.
Misc
- The part where Sana walks away after the final fight physically hurts me.
- A chargable attack and/or a way to heal during a fight (like in hollow knight) may give additional depth to the gameplay.
Overall I really enjoyed the game. Thank you for making it and hope you keep up the good work!