YAAAAY (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ I finally got around to playing the updated variant. Took a bit because I've had my hands full with getting my current project into the final stage. (I've also taken myself WAAAYYY to little time last year to play games)
But I am really happy to have gotten around to it now.
I am really happy to see how well the project already works at this stage. It was sometimes a bit hard to notice how an enemy would attack but overall the combat translates surprisingly well into 2D.
The Moonie death animation will haunt me for the rest of my life just as much as the Pikmin one.
I am insanely happy with how you've made the sunset effect. When I first saw the palette change I was scared it wouldn't have a very goof feel to it, but I was proved very wrong. It isn't the absurd beauty which Pikmin 4 presents you with, but instead absolute terror after the palette changes to a dark blue and the music stops playing being replaced with some really well fitting ominous atmosphere.
I think a reason why it works so well is also because of the strong dark-blue tint making things a little more hard to notice.
Anyways, had lots of fun returning back here. Pretty sure this will come in my favourite free games I played in 2025 (though sadly that list won't be too large because I didn't play many games).