Really kicking myself that I missed playing this during the jam period, because it is pretty incredible! The level design, bullet patterns, and overall player handling feel so polished and refined. Looking forward to continuing to make my way through the game!

Thanks for linking me here! I should preface by saying that I didn't quite yet beat the third (final?) boss, but I wanted to make sure I rated and commented before the jam ends.

First things, the game ran fine for me under WINE, and performance was great throughout. It's a very clean feeling game, with the flashier effects understated enough not to clash with the pixel art. The patterns I encountered in wave one and two were good fun, and the enemies satisfying to beat: nothing oppressive, and I didn't find myself using the slow feature, but I'm sure the hard version of the game (and later waves) would dial this up. The third wave was a touch harder, and I took a hit or two. Ultimately it was the last boss that stopped me dead. They seemed to phase so many times that I became reckless and impatient, and tanked multiple hits assuming I was on the verge of winning. Maybe I was - who knows! - but when they reappeared yet again after another black screen fakeout, freshly-twinned and freshly-bubbled, I finally caved. At this point, I should have probably started using the slow-down feature, but I'd already forgotten what key I'd bound it to... I'm getting old. ;)

That said, I can see the appeal of the endurance-style gameplay, and the patterns never seemed unfair, just unfamiliar on first run. If I'd had more time to spare, I'm sure I could have beaten the boss if I'd done another restart. In that regard I wish it was quicker to blaze through the first waves, but I do respect that the gameplay loop requires a slower pace to make the player sweat while the walls close in. (As far as those walls go, though, I only hit them once early on - otherwise I stayed low and central and that seemed to work well for almost every pattern, although it did turn the triple-shot into a downgrade, as two of the three projectiles then reliably missed. For that reason I didn't take the triple-shot on my third and most successful attempt.)

It was good fun overall, and I'm grateful you shared this with us. I'll be sure to take another shot at that boss when I get a spare moment!

Beautiful and fun. Actually not much else to say, seems nice, just missing some polishing touches maybe, but nothing that actually matters for a game jam, well done

Hey, I was finally able to get it to boot tonight. Not sure what changed, but it's working well now. First off, visuals are great - I like the atmosphere you're going for. I think you pulled it off well with the art, backgrounds, etc. 

I also very much enjoyed the gameplay. Admittedly, I wasn't able to complete the game yet. I only reached the second stage, but I'm going to give it another go in the morning.  Only after I had a game over did I realize I was pressing the wrong key for slow down after wondering why it wasn't working (I hit the x key instead of shift). That being said, I had a good time with what I've played so far. The walls closing in were a nice touch to add to the intensity.

Great work with this. If the first couple stages are any indication, I bet the total package could be a full fledged game.

It's really well polished, and has very good music and an interesting aesthetic (a little dark for my taste, but that's just something personal)!

Unfortunately, it seems like the continue does not reset the position of the walls? I died to the walls being 1 pixel thin on the first boss because I thought I was maybe supposed to spare them after their shield went down, given there's talk about empathy and two different endings (I even flew into the boss to go for a "hug"). Then the walls just instantly destroyed me again after continuing!

This is a very minor thing, but does this engine, which I'm actually completely unfamiliar with, allow you to name key binds in the menu? I had no idea what I was re-binding, since I think the slow-down button is called "Fire 2" or something. :D

Overall it shows that quite a lot of work and polish went into it, and I liked the boss' bullet patterns! For now, I had to give up since I want to play some of the other jam games, but I might go back and try it again later!

[hard version, beaten up by boss 3]

So on the surface the game is quite pretty and the the soundtrack is quite nice, but unfortunately gameplay-wise I’m quite mixed.

The walls instantly killing you is extremely nasty, and wish they just bounced you away while dealing survivable damage or something.

The stages themselves are paced quite too slowly, which when combined with how tanky every enemy is (and the absence of any popcorn) makes them kind of a slog to go through even if they’re not necessarily hard, especially if you’re trying to replay them after getting suddenly vaporized by a wall during a previous run.

The player is rather plain to use, with a fairly static shot (unless you choose the wide shot upgrade at which point you can start pointblanking things), and no other mechanics to play with like other weapons or scoring systems to interact with. I also noticed that if you continue the game strips you of your weapon upgrades, which I wasn’t a fan of.

The game definitely picks up during boss fights and makes use of the walls in fun ways, but the aforementioned one-shotting from the walls also hurts. Unfortunately the bosses also share the same kind of tankiness as the stage enemies, making them overstay their welcome by a bit.

It took me several hours but I finally managed to beat the game in normal mode, got ending 1/2.

The game is excellent. I love the soundtracks, controls, feedback, speed and all are perfect and it really delivers tons of great bullet patterns which is why we're here.

Immediately dying when touching a wall is brutal, it ruined me quite some runs when not paying attention, I'm trying to constantly remind to myself "don't forget about the walls ... don't forget about the walls ..." when playing. No mercy, I like that.

Now I'm looking at the screenshot and realise it's like a different game from what I've played, I'll probably try to deal with Hard mode some day, the game's worth it.

I enjoyed the game immensely, thanks for sharing.

Really cool! Though I'm clueless how to progress further. The second boss's walls just became thinner than my hitbox.

This was really well done!

Hey there, I downloaded and extracted the normal version, however the executable didn't do anything.