I really liked the bgm as well as the overall graphics of the game. It really fits a specific vibe that definitely ropes in particular audience. Overall really fun game!
There is clearly a lot of effort to give the game some character - the unique title, the art style, soundtrack, and the storyline of the demon needing to collect essence to survive. It reminds me of older SNES games like Earthbound and of recent ones like Undertale and Deltarune. An interesting spin on the gameplay is the way that the narrative encourages players to actively fight enemies rather than just avoid them. This tells me that the team dedicated their efforts into reducing narrative dissonance, which is a kind of 'depth' less focused on gameplay but more on storytelling. More on gameplay depth, the combination of two attack options, one of which allows the player to attack to the side (holding down the RMB) gives a lot of flexibility on where to place the player avatar. The two enemy types force the player to adopt different strategies - the player can afford to approach sword-launching enemies because of their restricted attack (simply shooting down), but players must pull back and estimate when and how the angel-like enemies will shoot their lasers. The fact that health is tied to both time and taking damage adds a nuance to the gameplay loop that forces the player to consider aggressive strategies where it may be difficult to.
The game had a very nice look to it and the mechanics for the game felt good. I liked that the attacks were synced with the music, and fighting the AI felt very fair and fun.
Great combination of music and bullet hell, using slowing diminishing health to force the player to destroy enemies instead of avoiding them.
I really love the theme and the integration of music into the game. It was challenging at first but I could get better by playing it more and could understand enemy attack patters, encouraging skill depth.
It has multiple ways to attack the enemies depend on their behavior
The art and background of the game is impressive. A well designed pixel art game. The gameplay is smooth and satisfying.
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What could this game have done better?
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I would have liked the hearts to decrease at a slower rate, or if not at all.
The angel laser attack occurs too immediately and is almost impossible to dodge unless you know beforehand at what stage of the attack cycle the enemy is on. Combined with groups of angels firing their lasers, the play area quickly becomes chaotic and almost impossible to optimize for - the player is guaranteed to take damage, which can be frustrating. An indicator of where the lasers would attack before they fire would be much appreciated and gives players time to dodge. The bounding box collision that detects if the player picks up the heart pickup is too strict - you have to be completely on top of the heart for the game to recognize that the player wants to pick up the heart; increasing the bounding boxes of either the heart of the player would be appreciated.
I had a problem just starting the game, sometimes it wouldn't start and would scroll the page when I pressed space. Also it feels very confusing when the enemies flash when they get hit, because it looks like they die but come back, and it's very difficult to tell when you have defeated the enemy. The melee attack maybe should have some sort of use to it, because I feel like I am only shooting most of the time.
The laser enemies are very difficult to dodge, especially when the numbers start to add up, maybe reduce bullet speed for these.
I felt losing health to the game beats a bit too challenging, one has to be quite perfect. Felt like the melee attack didn't work sometimes, and the enemies flashing on hit was a bit confusing. But an enjoyable game nevertheless.
the laser shoots very quick and sometimes this kind of enemy appears much and really hard to react and dodge.
If there is more feedback, like visual effects when hitting the enmies, it would be better
Comments
What did this game do well?
****************************
I really liked the bgm as well as the overall graphics of the game. It really fits a specific vibe that definitely ropes in particular audience. Overall really fun game!
There is clearly a lot of effort to give the game some character - the unique title, the art style, soundtrack, and the storyline of the demon needing to collect essence to survive. It reminds me of older SNES games like Earthbound and of recent ones like Undertale and Deltarune. An interesting spin on the gameplay is the way that the narrative encourages players to actively fight enemies rather than just avoid them. This tells me that the team dedicated their efforts into reducing narrative dissonance, which is a kind of 'depth' less focused on gameplay but more on storytelling. More on gameplay depth, the combination of two attack options, one of which allows the player to attack to the side (holding down the RMB) gives a lot of flexibility on where to place the player avatar. The two enemy types force the player to adopt different strategies - the player can afford to approach sword-launching enemies because of their restricted attack (simply shooting down), but players must pull back and estimate when and how the angel-like enemies will shoot their lasers. The fact that health is tied to both time and taking damage adds a nuance to the gameplay loop that forces the player to consider aggressive strategies where it may be difficult to.
The game had a very nice look to it and the mechanics for the game felt good. I liked that the attacks were synced with the music, and fighting the AI felt very fair and fun.
Great combination of music and bullet hell, using slowing diminishing health to force the player to destroy enemies instead of avoiding them.
I really love the theme and the integration of music into the game. It was challenging at first but I could get better by playing it more and could understand enemy attack patters, encouraging skill depth.
It has multiple ways to attack the enemies depend on their behavior
The art and background of the game is impressive. A well designed pixel art game. The gameplay is smooth and satisfying.
========================================
What could this game have done better?
****************************
I would have liked the hearts to decrease at a slower rate, or if not at all.
The angel laser attack occurs too immediately and is almost impossible to dodge unless you know beforehand at what stage of the attack cycle the enemy is on. Combined with groups of angels firing their lasers, the play area quickly becomes chaotic and almost impossible to optimize for - the player is guaranteed to take damage, which can be frustrating. An indicator of where the lasers would attack before they fire would be much appreciated and gives players time to dodge. The bounding box collision that detects if the player picks up the heart pickup is too strict - you have to be completely on top of the heart for the game to recognize that the player wants to pick up the heart; increasing the bounding boxes of either the heart of the player would be appreciated.
I had a problem just starting the game, sometimes it wouldn't start and would scroll the page when I pressed space. Also it feels very confusing when the enemies flash when they get hit, because it looks like they die but come back, and it's very difficult to tell when you have defeated the enemy. The melee attack maybe should have some sort of use to it, because I feel like I am only shooting most of the time.
The laser enemies are very difficult to dodge, especially when the numbers start to add up, maybe reduce bullet speed for these.
I felt losing health to the game beats a bit too challenging, one has to be quite perfect. Felt like the melee attack didn't work sometimes, and the enemies flashing on hit was a bit confusing. But an enjoyable game nevertheless.
the laser shoots very quick and sometimes this kind of enemy appears much and really hard to react and dodge.
If there is more feedback, like visual effects when hitting the enmies, it would be better