I had a bit of a problem with the player controls / movement and how difficult it made the game feel sometimes. Other than that, everything feels good and polished.

The art,  ui,  sound, music and overall atmosphere are great.

Good job :)

good game but the level is too linear for a metroidvania

I’m not sure if I got as far as possible in this game, but there’s much to like of what I did see! I like the art and animations. They’re all very complete for being made in a month along with all the other development! The sound is good, and the off-beat music is interesting and somehow fitting. So, I’d say another success on that front!

As others have pointed out, the control scheme is a bit odd. It’s OK to be original, but you’ll want to add some sort of dialog system or tutorial system to let players know how to use the controls. Or maybe go with a “standard” or well known scheme from metroidvanias of the past. (You would still want to teach players the controls/mechanics - of course.)

I liked the timing mechanism for door opening till I had to time my jumps in order to do this. I found that tedious and would just jump and fire till I got a timed shot. I would suggest removing this or changing is so it’s more interesting. At least that’s my opinion.

One last thing. Not really digging the recoil of the gun either. Is there a good design reason to have it in the game? Will there be an upgrade later to remove it? It add challenge when firing while on a platform - particularly above a bed of spikes. But there’s already challenge trying to hit the enemy that’s blocking your path. Hollow Knight has knock back during melee attack, but in that “universe” it makes sense because hitting things with a sword would probably knock you back. A laser bolt which has no mass should probably not recoil this much. Plus Hollow Knight allow players to remove the knock back later with a charm. Cave Story has a gun with such strong knock back/recoil that you can fly with the gun by shooting downwards. So, they turned a negative into a positive ability. (And the fact that it doesn’t make sense in reality doesn’t matter – because it’s fun!)

Anyway, this is obviously just my opinion and the customer is not always right (they just think they are). But maybe some food for thought at least.

Despite the detail I’ve gone into with negatives, this is a fun little game with nice aesthetics! If you keep working on it, I’m sure you can turn it into something really cool!

We’d love to know what you think about our game! So please play, rate and, most of all, drop a comment on the submission page and let us know what you liked and what you didn’t! Thanks!

Overall I enjoyed it. You did an amazing job with the pixel art and overall atmosphere. The story was also really nice and I like how cryptic the whole game feels. 

The idea of timed doors is a nice twist on the metroid door cliche. Really creative. The HUD also reminds me of the older metroid titles as well. 

I enjoyed the little optional power ups. Some of them were fairly challenging to get. 

But I want to complain about the movement a bit. I know it's probably by design but it really doesn't feel that nice. The jump is really floaty but also way too short somehow. And in general the speed of the character makes the game feel very sluggish. 

I think it's also an odd choice to have the dash unlocked from the start but only on the ground. I would probably have enjoyed it more if you just game me air and ground dash at the same time when you get the air dash. 

Only one rating btw ? This game deserves far more attention. Thanks for making it.