Clean presentation and a nice throwback with the ascii art aesthetic.

PROS:

• Movement is smooth and all the on-screen controls help a lot with onboarding players on how to play.
• The impression of lighting effects really helps sell the concept of a dungeon/undercity even though all of the graphics are just ascii characters.
• Combat actually felt intuitive for the most part and wasn't hard to pick up how to "do the dance" with different enemies.

CRITIQUE:

• The control explanation in the intro probably wasn't necessary with all the on-screen button info so it can be shortened just by removing that part and keep it focused on the characters.
• I only ever found a stick item that was the same as the stick I already had so I didn't even think that the game would let me pick the other one up.
• The enemy AI was nicely predictable so that I could have agency over combat, but I did feel like combat took longer than necessary in a couple spots. Could just be a desire for more enemy variety between the first couple of levels once I figured out how a Snake enemy would act, but just a tweak to pacing would be nice there.